PREPARATIONS are well underway for the hosting of the annual Kopen Take Pii Cultural Festival and Ecotourism Conservation exhibition which commence next Tuesday in Enga Province. The three days cultural festival and ecotourism products exhibition has been simultaneously postponed last year due to upsurge in the World Global pandemic Covid-19 delta variant that claimed many lives around the country. Chairman Luke Lucas Lale said preparations of both cultural festival and ecotourism products exhibition including construction of stalls as well as cultural groups dancers are all set to roll. The Cultural Festival and Ecotourism Products Exhibition will start from 8th – 10th with the official opening on Tuesday and closing on Thursday by the PNG National Cultural Commission Executive Director Steven Enomb Kilanda and Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas respectively. Mr. Lale said PNG has got very diverse and unique cultures, music and art. He said the festival and ecotourism products exhibition has become a vehicle on which the communities will all stand together to promote domestically. “The Kopen Take Pii Cultural Festival will be different from any other festival hosted around the country in which we will interpret Enga proverbs, perform rituals, interpret myths, scared sites visitation like historic caves, legendary lakes, church tourism project sites, bird watching, trekking among others,” he said. He said hosting of such cultural festivals and tourism products development will enhance socio-economic activities and curb escalating law & order issues, address Gender Base Violence Inclusive Disabilities and other forms of Discrimination in the communities, whereby young men and women will actively participate to create enabling conducive environment. Mr. Lale reiterated that the Kopen Ecotourism Conservation project was started 20 years ago, however due to lack of funding it could not progress further. “Now we have opted to revive these significant projects which we have partnered with the PNG National Cultural Commission, PNG Tourism Promotion Authority and Enga Provincial Government through their Provincial Division of Commerce, Culture and Tourism to develop, safeguard and promote because we see that our cultural heritages and tourism products are beneficial. “Culture is the only standalone tourism product in the country and must be embraced at all times. Culture is our greatest economic asset freely at our disposal, and we must embrace it because once our non-renewal resources have fully depleted, we will still have our both tangible and intangible cultural resources to fall back,” he said. Project Director Samson Kendeman shared the same sentiment saying culture provides belonging and an arena in which residents can make a difference. “Culture contributes to exclusionary practices and has been seen as a drag on development efforts. “We want our village to be a Tourism Model Village within the Wabag Local Level Government,” Mr. Kendeman said. He said management have already implemented some of their tourism products which all started at Kopen as phase one. “Beginning this year and going forward we will further develop tourism projects like Punar Waterfall, construct bush treks, bird watching, scared sites and other cultural heritages up in the Walum rainforest that will definitely promote both domestic and international tourist that can enhance socio-economic activities and alleviate poverty concurrently,” he said. Mr. Kendeman said the concept will also enable the village to tap into economic benefits of tourism, agriculture and forestry to develop small businesses in communities to sustain and empower youth including marginalized women and girls’ population taking the lead. “We urge both national and sub-national governments to support us as well as development partners in such cultural and tourism development industry where our target is to involve youth population to contain the consumption of alcohol and poisonous homebrew that presently leading to law and order issues,” he said. The Management and Festival Committee would like to thank the major sponsors of PNG National Cultural Commission, PNG Tourism Promotion Authority, Enga Provincial Government/Administration, Margaret Potane the Director of Provincial Division of Commerce, Culture & Tourism, Air Sanga Limited, National Airports Corporations, Lorma Construction Limited, Yani Hire Cars & Logistics, The National newspaper, Ribito Hotel & Restaurant, Joe Chen (Chen Trading), Ipali Limited, My Kids Inn, Porgera Sai Lodge, Kawai Lodge, Individual sponsors like Wabag Town Mayor Cr. Felix Poko, Milfred Wangatau and Kennedy Kiak.