Regional Forests Conservation
Both Opportunities and threats coexist
Papua New Guinea
Sir Alfred Russell Wallace, the famous biologist of the 19th century remarked that New Guinea “ contains more strange and new and beautiful objects than any other part of the globe.”
The 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.
» Read more about Forests of New Guinea
Solomon Islands
The Solomon Island forests are one of the 200 most important “ecoregions” in the world and one of the 10 most threatened forest ecoregions.
With New Guinea, the forests of the Solomon Islands make up the largest block of tropical rainforest remaining in the Asia Pacific and one of the three great rainforest areas on the planet
The Bismarck and Solomon Seas ecoregion boasts the highest diversity of saltwater fish and coral species in the world. Reef fish diversity and abundance is increasingly being seen as connected to the health of forested streams.
» Read more about Forest Conservation in the Solomons
Fiji
WWF Fiji Country Programme is one of the few non governmental organizations in the country who have taken an active interest in the conservation and management of native plants that are of ethno-botanical (cultural) significance to indigenous communities in Fiji. Two of its most recent successes include a first ever published document on the Trade of Medicinal Plants of the South Pacific and the restoration of Kuta Wetlands in Nakasobu, on Vanua Levu.
The native tree species vesi (Intisia bijuga) has been identified as seriously overexploited in many parts of Fiji, due to both the commercial timber and carving trade. The species faces the possibility of imminent disappearance as an economic and cultural plant resource.