March 17, 2023
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When conservation scientist Junior Novera was growing up in Mapisi Village, on a bend of the Sinamut River in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, he’d never heard the term conservation. There were sacred sites, treasured species, and complex rules governing people’s interactions with nature. But it wasn’t until he left the island for university and attended an intensive course with the Wildlife Conservation Society that the concept—as defined by Western science—became clear.
