Floristic Exploration and Survey of Four High-Priority Areas in New Guinea

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The research supported by this project will consist of intensive botanical exploration and collecting in four of New Guinea's principal floristic environments. The exploration targets have been selected for their institutional linkages, presumed biodiversity values, comparative lack of existing information, and the existence of imminent development threats likely to result in harmful impacts on environmental quality. Divided equally between Indonesian Papua and Papua New Guinea (PNG), the survey tracts include the Sepik and Kikori basins in PNG, and the Asmat foothills and Raja Ampat islands in Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). The selected localities are believed to contain substantial numbers of unknown plant species because of the unique geophysical characteristics of the respective areas. Although a wide range of vegetation types is included in the proposed inventory, premontane and high rainfall habitats are favored in the sampling due to the known relationship between such sites and floristic diversity. The botanical collecting will focus on mosses and vascular plants within the targeted territories. In addition to substantial participation by indigenous organizations, planning agencies, and personnel, the survey plan is underpinned by extensive connections to international researchers and conservation groups. One of the study's principal objectives is to develop synthetical and electronically-accessible databases of the botanical assets in the focal areas. Digital photography will be a valuable adjunct product to the large number of herbarium specimens which are to be acquired and distributed by the exploration program, to such institutions as the Harvard Herbaria, the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. The impacts and benefits of the proposed project will be manifold. The study will materially improve the comprehensiveness and quality of ongoing monographic revisions in the Flora Malesiana program, by involving the major international centers for plant taxonomic research and ca. 40 leading taxonomic authorities on the regional flora. The improved understanding of Papuasian plant life will facilitate conservation efforts in New Guinea along a broad front, first by enabling managers to properly evaluate the relative value of suspected hotspots, and secondly, because the close involvement of indigenous organizations will promote the implementation of current conservation initiatives within the targeted sites. The Principal Investigator's students and colleagues include senior New Guinean science administrators working in both the government and nongovernmental sectors. Their participation in the research itinerary will form the basis for their academic studies and is part of a conscious strategy for developing an effective cadre of local counterparts.