Kaijende Highlands

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The Kaijende Highlands are a nearly uninhabited expanse of mountains near Porgera in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. [1] The highlands have been characterized as "some of Papua New Guinea's most pristine and scenic montane habitat". [2] The Kaijende Highlands include Lake Tawa, Paiela Road, Omyaka Creek, Waile Creek and the Porgera Reservoir. The mountain range is 70 km north-west of Mount Hagen. [3] According to a survey conducted in 2007, "areas like Kaijende are characterized by pronounced dominance of microtherm families, most notably by Cunoniaceae, Epacridaceae, Ericaceae, Geraniaceae, Myrsinaceae, Podocarpaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Theaceae, Violaceae, and Winteraceae." [4]

Porgera Place in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea

Porgera is a town in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. It lies to the east of Porgera Gold Mine.

Mount Hagen Town in Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

Mount Hagen is the third largest city in Papua New Guinea, with a population of 46,250. It is the capital of the Western Highlands Province and is located in the large fertile Wahgi Valley in central mainland Papua New Guinea, at an elevation of 1,677 m (5,502 ft).

Cunoniaceae family of plants

Cunoniaceae is a family of 27 genera and about 300 species of woody plants in the order Oxalidales, mostly found in the tropical and wet temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The greatest diversity of genera are in Australia and Tasmania, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. The family is also present in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Malesia, the island of the South Pacific, Madagascar and surrounding islands. the family is absent from mainland Asia except from Peninsular Malaysia, and almost absent from mainland Africa apart from two species from Southern Africa. Several of the genera have remarkable disjunct ranges, found on more than one continent, e.g. Cunonia, EucryphiaWeinmannia sect. Weinmannia.

Contents

The Kaijende Highlands have received media attention since 2005 due to a number of new species discovered in the area. A notable study compiled samples of 759 specimens from the Kaijende Highlands, which is among the largest surveys by CI-RAP in Papua New Guinea, and discovered 24 new species of plants and frogs among them. Other surveys have found new species of jumping spiders and other fauna.

Biodiversity surveys

The Kaijende Highlands have received media attention between 2005 and 2010 due to a number of biodiversity studies which have discovered a plethora of new species of plants and animals. In August to September 2005, Conservation International and the Porgera Joint Venture, performed a biodiversity survey to "collect data on the species richness and conservation status of plants, herpetofauna, birds and mammals." According to the report published by Conservation International in 2007, "the flora and fauna of Enga Province are probably less well known than that of any other province in Papua New Guinea". [1] [2] The Porgera Joint Venture also participated in the development of a Wildlife Conservation Area in the Kaijende Highlands.

Conservation International nonprofit environmental organization

Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Its goal is to protect nature as a source of food, fresh water, livelihoods and a stable climate.

Another study, performed by Wayne Takeuchi of the Forest Research Institute compiled samples of 759 specimens from the Kaijende Highlands, which is among the largest surveys by CI-RAP in Papua New Guinea. The survey discovered 24 new species, including 16 new plants (5 arborescent taxa, 5 understory shrubs, 2 vines, 2 orchids, and 2 ferns), and 8 new species of frogs. [2] According to Takeuchi, "New Guinea is home to one of the world’s richest floras." [4] Subsequent research in the area has turned up other discoveries, including 6 new species of jumping spiders collected in 2009. [5] Modern estimates approximate 15,000 to 20,000 species present on the island. [6]

Arborescent

Arborescent is a term used by the French thinkers Deleuze and Guattari to characterize thinking marked by insistence on totalizing principles, binarism, and dualism. The term, first used in A Thousand Plateaus (1980) where it was opposed to the rhizome, comes from the way genealogy trees are drawn: unidirectional progress, with no possible retroactivity and continuous binary cuts. Rhizomes, on the contrary, mark a horizontal and non-hierarchical conception, where anything may be linked to anything else, with no respect whatsoever for specific species: rhizomes are heterogeneous links between things that have nothing to do between themselves. Horizontal gene transfer is also an example of rhizomes, opposed to the arborescent evolutionism theory. Deleuze also criticizes the Chomsky hierarchy of formal languages, which he considers a perfect example of arborescent dualistic theory.

Vine plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems or runners

A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent stems, lianas or runners. The word vine can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.

Fern group of plants

A fern is a member of a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaves called megaphylls, that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns, sometimes referred to as true ferns. They produce coiled fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species.

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Enga Province Place in Papua New Guinea

Enga is one of the provinces in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is located in the north most region of the highlands of PNG, having been divided from the Western Highlands to become a separate province when the provinces were created at the time of independence in 1975. The people of Enga are called Engans—they are a majority ethnic group—speaking one language in all its five districts: approximately 500,000 people. A small minority of Engans' land on the eastern side of the region remained in the Western Highlands, their territory being accessible by road from Mount Hagen but not directly from elsewhere in Enga territory.

The East Melanesian Islands, also known as the Solomons-Vanuatu-Bismarck moist forests, is a biogeographic region in the Melanesia region of Oceania.

Highlands Highway road

The Highlands Highway, sometimes known as the Okuk Highway, is the main land highway in Papua New Guinea. It connects several major cities and is vital for the movement of people and goods between the populous Highlands region and the coast.

Fauna of New Guinea

The fauna of New Guinea comprises a large number of species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and amphibians.

Wabag Place in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea

Wabag is the capital of Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. It is the least populous provincial capital in the country. It is on the Lai River; the Highlands Highway passes through the town, between Mount Hagen and Porgera. Europeans first visited the site in 1938-39 A radio camp and airstrip were established in 1938-39 but restrictions on transportation and the surrounding land's infertility long inhibited Wabag's development.

Conservation in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea together with the West Papua region of Indonesia make up a major tropical wilderness area that still contains 5% of the original and untouched tropical high-biodiversity terrestrial ecosystems. PNG in itself contains over 5% of the world's biodiversity in less than 1% of the world's total land area. The flora of New Guinea is unique because it has two sources of origin. The Gondwana flora from the south and flora with Asian origin from the west, as a result New Guinea shares major family and genera with Australia and the East Asia, but is rich in local endemic species. The endemicity is a result of mountainous isolation, topographic and soil habitat heterogeneity, high forest disturbance rates and abundant aseasonal rainfall year-round. PNG boasts some 15-21,000 higher plants, 3,000 species of orchids, 800 species of coral, 600 species of fish, 250 species of mammals and 760 species of birds and 8 species of tree-kangaroos out of which 84 genera of animals are endemic. Ecosystems range from lowland forests to montane forests, alpine flora down to coastal areas which contains some of the most extensive pristine mangrove areas in the world. Much of this biodiversity has remained intact for thousands of years because the ruggedness of the terrain made the interior lands inaccessible; furthermore low population density and restrictions on the effectiveness of traditional tools, ensured that these biodiversity was never overexploited.

Porgera Gold Mine

The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold and silver mining operation in Enga province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), located at the head of the Porgera Valley. The mine is situated in the rain forest covered highlands at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,700 m, in a region of high rainfall, landslides, and frequent earthquakes.

Mount Bosavi mountain

Mount Bosavi is a mountain in the Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. It is the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, part of the Kikori River basin. The crater is approximately 4 km wide and 1 km deep; it is home to a number of endemic species.

Beck's tree frog is a species of frogs in the family Hylidae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitats are tropical moist montane forests, grasslands and streams. It was first described by the British biologist and herpetologist Arthur Loveridge in 1945 and is named in honour of the American ornithologist and explorer Rollo Beck who led the Whitney South Seas Expedition in the 1920s, collecting bird and other specimens from thousands of islands in the South Pacific.

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New Guinea Highlands Natural region in New Guinea

The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, are a chain of mountain ranges and intermountain river valleys, many of which support thriving agricultural communities, on the large island of New Guinea. The highlands run generally east-west the length of the island, which is divided politically between Indonesia in the west and Papua New Guinea in the east.

New Guinea Island in the Pacific Ocean

New Guinea is a large island separated by a shallow sea from the rest of the Australian continent. It is the world's second-largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi), and the largest wholly or partly within the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania.

Lagaip-Porgera District Place in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea

Lagaip-Porgera District is a district of the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Lagaip-Porgera. The population of the district was 158,873 at the 2011 census.

Ipili is an Engan language of the East New Guinea Highlands in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea.

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Kandep Rural LLG is one of two LLGs of the Kandep District of Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located in southern Wabag, the capital town of Enga Province. Kandep shares land borders with Laiagam - Porgera, Wabag, and Wapenimanda District, along with additional land borders between the Southern Highlands, the Western Highlands provinces, and the newly Provinces.

Wage Rural LLG, Kandep District is one of the two Local-Level Governments (LLGs) of the Kandep District of Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located at Southern part of Wabag, capital town of [Enga Province]. Kandep shares land borders between Laiagam - Porgera, Wabag, and Wapenimanda District. Also shares borders with Southern Highland, Western highlands and newly breakaway Provinces of Hela. The Kandep is accessible by road. Kandep - Laiagam Road linking to Wabag is 3 hours drive back and forth. The Kandep - Mendi road is under construction. The Kandep - Magarima Road also provides a connection.

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References

  1. 1 2 Richards (editor), Stephen J. (2007). "A Rapid Biodiversity Assessment of the Kaijende Highlands, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea" (PDF). RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment. ISBN   978-1-934151-08-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "24 Species Believed New to Science in found in Papua New Guinea Highlands" . Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  3. ↑ BirdLife International (2010).
  4. 1 2 "Vascular plants of the Kaijende Highlands, Papua New Guinea: Taxonomic and vegetation survey" . Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  5. ↑ "Scientist Discovers New Spider Species" . Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  6. ↑ Australian Survey Corps 1979. Papua New Guinea 1:100,000 Topographic Survey Map. Edition 1-AAS, Series T601: Koroba 7486.

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