Sunrise over the tranquil waters of Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea`s West New Britain province. Beneath these waters is one of the most biodiverse and unique environments on the planet. And behind the tranquillity is a unique struggle to conserve this precious resource.

ANDREW BATA, KIMBE BAY LANDOWNER: Our reef is very important. We learn from the sea when and where we must go diving to find different fish.

Andrew Bata is a Kimbe Bay community leader managing an issue unheard of when he was younger. He`s closed a number of his people`s reefs for rehabilitation, part of Papua New Guinea`s first community-managed marine conservation area.

ANDREW BATA: We must wait to see if there are any changes. If there are, then we can observe the other reefs. Then we can dive again.

According to marine scientists, there`s more here in need of conservation than anywhere else in the world - that includes Australia`s Great Barrier Reef.

DR GEOFF JONES, JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY: In this particular area, you also get an enormous number of species that evolved here and are only found here. Just in general terms of biodiversity, most of the species that are found on the Great Barrier Reef are also found up here, but there`s also an additional 20 or 30% of species.

People have been part of the natural balance in Kimbe Bay for more than 35,000 years, but in the last 35 years, that relationship has been on tenterhooks.

NOAH TIAH, FISHERIES OFFICER: We need to conserve these things for our children. The rate that the resources are exploited now, especially along the coast, it`s just alarming.

Kimbe Bay`s commercial fishing industry is booming, but poorly regulated. High prices for delicacy species like beche-de-mer have fuelled the spread of destructive practices such as drag-netting and dynamite fishing on the reefs. Remarkably, those coming to the rescue of the reefs in Kimbe Bay are children. In the local tongue, they`re Mahonia Na Dari, which translates as "guardians of the sea". They`re being recruited into this role by a small conservation organisation that bears the same name.

SHANNON SEETO, MAHONIA NA DARI: Our mission statement basically is to create understanding of the marine environment and still in a young age. Educating future generations, the ambassadors of conservation - they`re the ones who will make changes for the future.

YOUNG WOMAN: OK, so here we have the sea cucumber. He doesn`t have a heart. Just be careful, don`t squeeze him. Sometimes water starts coming out.

The Mahonia Na Dari program began just four years ago, but its conservation message now reaches 14,000 young Papua New Guineans every year. Schools from all over the country send classes to the organisation`s facilities on the shores of Kimbe Bay.

NOAH TIAH: These children are the future resource owners, and for them to have the education that we`re giving to them now at such a young age, hopefully they will be able to influence them to make better decisions when their time comes, when they will take the role as a leader of their community.

For many of the students, Mahonia opens up a new world. Most have a profound understanding of their terrestrial environment, passed on from their parents and generations before them. Yet, with the planet`s richest marine eco-system on their doorstep, many Papua New Guineans admit ignorance of their marine environment.

PRISCILLAR NILI, YEAR6 STUDENT: I thought that the coral reefs of plants, colourful plants that live underwater and they were just there to decorate the sea.

GADOENO MICKI, YEAR 6 STUDENT: I`ve seen plenty of reefs at home and I`ve walked on them and I`ve just thought they were pieces of rock that just have colour, and they were nothing much, and now I came here and I know it`s all living stuff.

Students at Mahonia undertake courses up to 13 days long. They learn the basic science of the sea and techniques to monitor its condition. The courses also make the link between the health of the seas and coastal land use practices.

BALBINA WANGI, YEAR 6 STUDENT: Some people that live by the sea but don`t know that much are affecting the sea in a very disastrous form. I`d probably speak to them, because, you know, they need to know more.

The secret of Mahonia`s success is that students take the conservation message back to their communities.

GADOENO MICKI: Now when I go back to my village I`ll think better of where I put my feet and tell my people how to look after it and that it`s not just a clump of rock, it`s living.

Ironically, Mahonia`s greatest ambassadors are a pair of young environmental vandals. Leni and Niko are characters in a `Punch and Judy` style puppet show which tours villages and schools. The boys` antics raise plenty of laughs, but deal with the serious issue of poison rope fishing. It`s the widespread and highly destructive practice of dumping poison from a toxic vine onto the reef to stun fish, but killing coral in the process.

DOMINIC RAKA, TEACHER: When talking to the children, it does not help too much. When we do puppets play and this, it will help them, because it will stay in their minds, when they go out to the village they will tell their friends, they`ll tell their mothers and fathers about this, what they`ve seen in school.

Demand for Mahonia`s courses outstrips available places by 10:1. The organisation now trains teachers to take the program into schools.

SHANNON SEETO: That is another partner that we work with is the National Curriculum Development Unit, that we work very strongly with, and through them, hopefully, we could work on curriculums throughout the whole country for every school.

Mahonia`s true success, though, is not measured in student numbers.

ANDREW BATA: I have heard from some people who have seen it, Mahonia divers who observed the reef, they said that the fish population has increased. It`s growing.

BALBINA WANGI: To gain this knowledge means to help our future and help this coral reef, so it protects us and it protects them, and it benefits to everyone.

Mahonia`s true success is on the reefs, where the impact of the programs means less impact on the environment.