The world's largest tropical island, New Guinea is located north of Australia, just south of the equator. It is tectonic in origin, with large changes in elevation and many different habitats. Because of its size and varied terrain, New Guinea has a greater variety of habitats than any similar-sized land area in the world. In fact, New Guinea is so rugged that it is one of the least explored or developed places on earth. It provides the best remaining example of the types of organisms that can develop in island isolation.
New Guinea habitats include cold tundra, tropical rain forests, grassy savannas, coastal zones, montane rain forests, cloud forests, and bogs. There are at least twenty thousand species of flowering plants, including more than twenty-five hundred species of orchids, and hundreds of birds and animals. Many New Guinea species are unusual. Endemic Klinki pines are the tallest tropical trees in the world, reaching 295 feet (90 meters) tall. Many forests host "ant-plants," warty looking epiphytes that have hollow mazes inside their tissues. Ants live in the maze, safe from predators. The ants provide nutrition for the plant in the form of droppings, scraps of food, and dead ants.
Even though New Guinea is rugged and isolated, human impact is increasing. The population is rising, which means that more forests are being logged and grasslands plowed for agriculture, roads, and development. Humans have brought in food plants such as the sago palm, which can be cultivated in areas where traditional crops will not survive. They also cultivate pandanus trees, several varieties of fruiting vine, breadfruit, fungi, rubers, sugarcane, bananas, taro, and yams. Gold, silver, and copper have been discovered, which encourages destructive mining.
It has proven difficult to develop New Guinea economically without destroying the unique life of the island. It is hoped that lessons learned on other islands, such as Guam and New Zealand, may be applied to New Guinea. The government has tried incentives to keep wild areas wild, including encouraging ecologically friendly businesses, such as crocodile and butterfly farms and ecotourism. The National Park reserve that includes Mount Jaya is the only place in the world where it is possible to visit a glacier and a coral reef in the same park.
See also: Fiji Islands, Coral Atolls, Future Prospects
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