Criminal
03-18-2004, 07:32 AM
http://www.montereybay.com/creagrus/BOP-lesser-betz.jpg
http://www.worldwildlife.org/newguinea/read_3.cfm
New Guinea - Overview
Few places on earth rival the diversity of New Guinea, and it has been said that the island "contains more strange and new and beautiful natural objects than any other part of the globe." The largest and highest tropical island in the world, New Guinea is split between the countries of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the east and the Indonesia province of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) in the west.
The island is blessed with remarkably diverse forests that are home to a rich variety species and cover about 65 percent of the land area of New Guinea. In fact, New Guinea has the largest remaining intact block of tropical forests in the Asia-Pacific region. The island's coastal systems contain some of the most pristine and largest tracts of mangroves in the world, while the lowlands and mountain areas contain as much as 124 million acres of tropical forests, notable for their highly rich island plant and animal life, much of which exists nowhere else in the world.
While New Guinea not usually associated with grasslands and flooded savannas, this island carpeted in lush rainforests is also flanked along its south coast by important monsoonal savannas and forests. Open acacia woodlands, grasslands and melaleuca swamps extend across a broad area from the Digul River in Papua Province (Indonesia) to the Fly River mouth in Papua New Guinea. The TransFly Grasslands and Savannas ecoregion cover approximately 6 million acres on the New Guinea south coast straddling the PNG and Indonesia border. While the remainder of PNG has rugged topography from intense tectonic activity, the southern Fly platform is remarkably flat.
Biodiversity
New Guinea's forests harbor as many as 11,000 species of plants, about 60 percent of which are found only in these forests. Home to the world's largest butterfly, Queen Alexandra's birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae), these forests also contain 76 bird species that are found nowhere else on Earth. Among them are most of the world's spectacular birds of paradise and the black-capped lory (Lorius lory). Fifty-six mammal species - including Doria's and Goodfellow's tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus dorianus notatus and D. goodfellowi) and the Papuan forest wallaby (Dorcopsis macleayi) - live only in these forests. There are also 365 species of fish, amphibians, and reptiles that are unique to New Guinea.
The Threat
Threats to the forests of New Guinea are numerous. In its current form, commercial logging has devastated many areas of New Guinea by clearing forests, altering ecological processes, and threatening both biological diversity and people's livelihoods. Although logging is by far the largest threat to the long-term ecological integrity of the forests of New Guinea, other large-scale, multinational extractive industries, especially minerals mining, also affect forests and are particularly harmful to aquatic ecosystems.
Slash-and-burn agriculture often follows in the footsteps of loggers and can completely alter whatever remnant forests the loggers have left behind. In many cases, hunters use roads cleared by loggers to search for birds of paradise, cassowaries, and marsupials to trade in local and international markets.
Finally, as local people come into more frequent contact with the cash economy and other outside influences, their connection with the natural world and their traditional subsistence lifestyles diminishes and they become more inclined to cede natural resources to large-scale developers. In many cases, this development threatens both the environment and the livelihoods of local people over the long term.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/newguinea/read_3.cfm
New Guinea - Overview
Few places on earth rival the diversity of New Guinea, and it has been said that the island "contains more strange and new and beautiful natural objects than any other part of the globe." The largest and highest tropical island in the world, New Guinea is split between the countries of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the east and the Indonesia province of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) in the west.
The island is blessed with remarkably diverse forests that are home to a rich variety species and cover about 65 percent of the land area of New Guinea. In fact, New Guinea has the largest remaining intact block of tropical forests in the Asia-Pacific region. The island's coastal systems contain some of the most pristine and largest tracts of mangroves in the world, while the lowlands and mountain areas contain as much as 124 million acres of tropical forests, notable for their highly rich island plant and animal life, much of which exists nowhere else in the world.
While New Guinea not usually associated with grasslands and flooded savannas, this island carpeted in lush rainforests is also flanked along its south coast by important monsoonal savannas and forests. Open acacia woodlands, grasslands and melaleuca swamps extend across a broad area from the Digul River in Papua Province (Indonesia) to the Fly River mouth in Papua New Guinea. The TransFly Grasslands and Savannas ecoregion cover approximately 6 million acres on the New Guinea south coast straddling the PNG and Indonesia border. While the remainder of PNG has rugged topography from intense tectonic activity, the southern Fly platform is remarkably flat.
Biodiversity
New Guinea's forests harbor as many as 11,000 species of plants, about 60 percent of which are found only in these forests. Home to the world's largest butterfly, Queen Alexandra's birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae), these forests also contain 76 bird species that are found nowhere else on Earth. Among them are most of the world's spectacular birds of paradise and the black-capped lory (Lorius lory). Fifty-six mammal species - including Doria's and Goodfellow's tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus dorianus notatus and D. goodfellowi) and the Papuan forest wallaby (Dorcopsis macleayi) - live only in these forests. There are also 365 species of fish, amphibians, and reptiles that are unique to New Guinea.
The Threat
Threats to the forests of New Guinea are numerous. In its current form, commercial logging has devastated many areas of New Guinea by clearing forests, altering ecological processes, and threatening both biological diversity and people's livelihoods. Although logging is by far the largest threat to the long-term ecological integrity of the forests of New Guinea, other large-scale, multinational extractive industries, especially minerals mining, also affect forests and are particularly harmful to aquatic ecosystems.
Slash-and-burn agriculture often follows in the footsteps of loggers and can completely alter whatever remnant forests the loggers have left behind. In many cases, hunters use roads cleared by loggers to search for birds of paradise, cassowaries, and marsupials to trade in local and international markets.
Finally, as local people come into more frequent contact with the cash economy and other outside influences, their connection with the natural world and their traditional subsistence lifestyles diminishes and they become more inclined to cede natural resources to large-scale developers. In many cases, this development threatens both the environment and the livelihoods of local people over the long term.