© Brent Stirton/Getty Images / WWF-UK
New Guinea's montane forests.
New Guinea contains more strange and new and beautiful objects than any other part of the globe.
Sir Alfred Russell Wallace, 19th century biologist
Both opportunities and threats coexist
Papua New GuineaThe island of New Guinea stands with the Amazon, the Serengeti Plains and the Great Barrier Reef as one of the great natural jewels of this planet with:
- The world's third largest block of unbroken tropical rainforest
- As many bird and plant species as nearby mega-diverse Australia in one-tenth the land area
- More orchid species than any other place on earth
- The most extensive and most diverse mangroves in the world
- Home to almost all of the world's species of birds of paradise and tree kangaroos
- The world's largest pigeon, smallest parrot and longest lizard
- Some of the richest, most extensive and most pristine coral reefs in the world
- Almost one-fifth of the world's human languages (1100)
And while globally remarkable, New Guinea's forests and rivers are even more important to the six million people who depend on them daily for their food, shelter and medicine.
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