Kau Wildlife Conservation Area is located in the lowland rainforest near Baitabag Village in Madang Province. The conservation area covers almost 300 hectares of the undisturbed forest. 

​

It is one of the oldest conservation areas around Madang representing the last remaining patches of primary rainforest easily reached from the town of Madang. The forest around Baitabag village consists of patches of primary and secondary forests intermixed, whereas pristine primary forest starts about 3km from the village connecting the coastal areas with the nearby Adalbert range. Due to the long tradition of numerous scientific projects occurring there it represents one of the most comprehensively scientifically explored rainforest area in Melanesia. In 2018 BRC constructed a canopy crane here to better understand forest ecology and diversity.

​

The KAKOBA canopy crane is a tower crane built in the middle of the undisturbed forest that gives scientists access to tree crowns for research observations and experiments.

The crane is 45 meters tall with a 50 meters jib that gives access to almost 1 hectare of the rainforest for studies by local and overseas scientists on the forest canopy. 

The canopy crane project was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and was implemented by the New Guinea Binatang Research Center (NGBRC). The New Guinea Binatang Research Center contracted several companies from oversees and PNG  to build the canopy crane. The companies are; Liebherr Switzerland and Liebherr Singapore, the oversees companies and Heli Niugini, Ela and Wasmatau, the contracted companies from Madang in Papua New Guinea.

​

The canopy crane is now jointly operated by the European Research Council and the New Guinea Binatang Research Center. The crane is named KAKOBA in respect to the late three brothers; Kalim, Koil and Batet, the ancestors of the Didipa clan that owns the Baitabag land. 

​