パプアニューギニアにおける予防的保存の改善
IMPROVING PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

スターレン ジェトロ トゥルプル
STALEN Jethro Tulupul

1. Introduction.
Like many developing countries in the world, Papua
New Guinea has its challenges that are affecting theheritage collections on irregular basis. The challenges
that are faced by the museums has caused deteriorationon the tangible heritage collections that are held within
the museums.
This research is mainly about preventive conservationin museums in Papua New Guinea. As per the themeof the research “Improving preventive conservation inPapua New Guinea,” this research outlines few
prospects for identification of the needs for theimprovements to be made for museums in Papua NewGuinea. From this research, some solutions can be
identified from literatures, museums visits in Japan,
and interactions with museums professionals.
2. Research Purpose.
There are visual or physical evidences that indicateshigh presence of the agents of deterioration in themuseums in Papua New Guinea. However, the visualevidences that are present within the museum
buildings must be investigated with concrete results ofproof through scientific approach of investigation.
Through the investigation, those factors (agents ofdeterioration) that are affecting the collections can beknown. The investigation will also reveal the state of
the collections within the museums. With the results,
there can be proposals about the type of approaches
that can be taken to address the deteriorating state of
the collections.
3. Research Methodology.
The methodology of the main study on the preventive
conservation in the Papua New Guinea National
Museum comes in 3 methods. This is basically thegeneral setup of how the whole study program wascarried out, however, there are different sections to thisstudy that requires its own methodology. These type ofsurveys will be briefly introduced in this section. The
3 main methods of study includes:(i) Literature survey: About 22 journals from various
fields including Journal of Cultural Heritage (2),Building and Environment (1), Environment
International (1), Atmospheric environment (1),Studies in Conservation (12), Oceania (1),
Monographae Biologicae (2), Pacific Science (1), andJournal of Museum Ethnology (1) were reviewed in aperiod of 4 months.
(ii) Visits and Questionnaire: 3 Questionnaires wereadministered to 3 different museums (Edo Tokyo
National Museum, Chiran Peace Memorial Museum,and National Museum of Japanese History).
(iii) Issues in Papua New Guinea National Museumand Art Gallery (Temperature, Relative Humidity andPests). The issues in Papua New Guinea is the main
highlight of the research as part of the scientificapproach towards identifying the state of thecollections and therefore the methodology is according
to instruments used and the approach. The issues arereferred to as Case Study 1 (Temperature and RelativeHumidity) and Case Study 2 (Pests).
(1) Case Study 1 Methodology: Temperature andRelative Humidity.
Three (3) HoboPro data loggers were installed in 3
different locations of Papua New Guinea National
Museum and Art Gallery (Storeroom 2, Exhibition
space and Office area).
For this research discussions, the working data is for
12 months beginning from 1st April 2020
(2020/04/01) at 00:00 hours (12am) to 31th March
2021 (2021/03/31) at 23:00 hours (11pm). This will be
the only data used in the discussion because itrepresents the data for 1 year (12 months).
(2) Case study 2 Methodology: Pests.

The sticky pest traps were installed in several targetedareas of the Papua New Guinea National Museum andArt Gallery (Storeroom 2, Exhibition space, andOffice area). The sticky pest trap is installed parallel tothe wall basically to determine the directions at which
the pests are moving. The monitoring period of eachpest trap has a maximum timeframe of about 3 months.
At the University of Tsukuba, the samples wereobserved using the Keyence Digital Microscope VHX900 and the microscopic photographs were sent to theUniversity of Tsukuba Entomology Laboratory foridentification. The samples were sent to Fumakilla
Pest Company based in Hiroshima for spider species
identification.
4. Results.
(1) Results - Case study 1: Temperature andrelative humidity.
Case study 1 results General results summary.
The results of the HoboPro data loggers indicated that
there seem to be high RH all throughout the year. The
atmosphere seem to be moist all throughout the year.
The minimum average for the 3 locations is 67.68%
which is above the standard environment for thetangible heritage collections in the museums.
Basically, it can be assumed that there seem to bewater vapour in almost 2/3 of the entire monitoringperiod.
The results have generally indicated to us that theinternal environment is moist almost 2/3 of themonitoring period and that has given rise to a lot of
issues associated with the damp environment such as
mold, lichens, or even pests.
(2) Results - Case study 2: Pests.
The first sets of the results of the sticky pest traps
comes from the photographic identification of the pest
photos taken by the conservation laboratory
microscope and sent to the University of Tsukuba’s
Entomology
Laboratoryforpests/insects
identification. The second sets of the results comesfrom the Fumakilla Pest Company in Hiroshima.
However, the second set of results are only for spiders
and not for other pests/ insects.

(i) First sets of results.
The pests that were identified on first set of result
includes booklice, termites, millipede, springtail,black garden ants, fly, geckos, etc.
(ii) Second sets of results.
There are about 3 different species of the spiders
identified so far. The 3 species are (Microneta
formicaria, Phocus phalangioides, Termitidae).
Spiders’ significance: Some spiders can live indoorsif there are sufficient insects for them to eat, indicatinghousekeeping/pest control are inadequate. Otherspiders may enter from outside especially in autumn,indicating poor building proofing (Notton 2018).
5. Conclusion.
The findings of this study has clearly indicated to us
that the collections at the Papua New Guinea National
Museum and Art Gallery is in a very bad state. As wenoticed in the case the studies, about 2/3 of the entire
survey period has indicated moist atmosphere in themicroclimate (Case study 1). We also noticed that
there is still evidence of live pests in the building thatare living within the collections or are moving inside
the building from the external environment (Casestudy 2). Because of those results, we make proposals
or recommendations for the Papua New Guinea
National Museum to take into consideration.
6. Recommendation
There are some recommendations or ‘propositions’
where Papua New Guinea National Museum needs toconsider in the short term and in the long-run for thecollections to be well preserved. Some of those
propositions includes the Integrated Pest Management
System (IPM), museum’s buildings or wallingrefurbishment,
overhaulingofthe
Humidification/Ventilation/AirConditioning(HVAC) System, and the improvement on the microenvironment.
References
Notton, D.G. 2018. Identifying insect pests inmuseums and heritage buildings. 2nd Edition. The
Natural History Museum, London.