Named for its three main rivers – the Yopno, Uruwa and Som of the Huon Peninsula – the YUS Conservation Area covers 76,000 hectares of tropical forest from Papua New Guinea’s northern coast to interior mountains.

The protected area offers multiple benefits for both wildlife and people. Its tropical forest stores huge amounts of carbon dioxide, so protecting it prevents harmful greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

The lush forest ecosystem teems with life and provides countless resources and services that sustain the 10,000 villagers living in the conservation area. In particular, the forest is critical habitat for Matschie’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschei), an Endangered species that is one of Earth’s unique creatures with its bear-like head, monkey’s tail and a marsupial’s pouch.

Since 2002, the Global Conservation Fund (GCF) has provided more than $1 million to Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program for its work with communities and governmental partners to make the YUS Conservation Area possible.

Gazetted in January 2009 as Papua New Guinea’s first national conservation area, the YUS Conservation Area is the first to be declared under the nation’s Conservation Areas Act of 1978. It also represents the first time the more than 35 indigenous communities of the region have come together in joint action to protect their forest homeland and all the resources and services it provides. The new protected area consists of land pledged by more than 35 villages, from coral reefs off the coast to the 4,000-meter peaks of the western Saruwaged Mountains.