Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One

By Andrew J. Marshall and Bruce M. Beehler

The Ecology of Papua provides a comprehensive review of current scientific knowledge on all aspects of the natural history of western (Indonesian) New Guinea.

Designed for students of conservation, environmental workers, and academic researchers, it is a richly detailed text, dense with biogeographical data, historical reference, and fresh insight on this complicated and marvelous region. We hope it will serve to raise awareness of Papua on a global as well as local scale, and to catalyze effective conservation of its most precious natural assets.

New Guinea is the largest and highest tropical island, and one of the last great wilderness areas remaining on Earth. Papua, the western half of New Guinea, is noteworthy for its equatorial glaciers, its vast forested floodplains, its imposing central mountain range, its Raja Ampat Archipelago, and its several hundred traditional forest-dwelling societies. One of the wildest places left in the world, Papua possesses extraordinary biological and cultural diversity.

Today, Papua’s environment is under threat from growing outside pressures to exploit its expansive forests and to develop large plantations of oil palm and biofuels. It is important that Papua’s leadership balance economic development with good resource management, to ensure the long-term well-being of its culturally diverse populace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Periplus Editions
• Release date: Jul 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462906796

Book preview

SECTION ONE

Introduction to Papua

1.1. Introduction to Papua

BRUCE M. BEEHLER

PAPUA, THE WESTERN HALF of the great subcontinental island of New Guinea, encompasses 416,129 km² and supports the largest tract of old growth tropical forest wilderness remaining in the Asia-Pacific region. Dominated by the huge Central Cordillera that generates abundant rainfall, the rivers of Papua drain northward into a vast interior basin (the Mamberamo/Meervlakte) and south into a triangular alluvial platform that broadens as it reaches eastward to the border with Papua New Guinea. At its westernmost, Papua is dominated by a welter of small mountain ranges (accreted terranes), peninsulas (Vogelkop [Bird’s Head], Wandammen, Fakfak, Kumawa), and island groups (Raja Ampats, Cenderawasih Bay Islands). In many respects, Papua resembles its eastern counterpart, mainland Papua New Guinea, but its mountains are higher (reaching to the snow line), its swamps are larger (e.g., Mamberamo, the Asmat), its population is smaller (ca 2.2 million vs. ca 5 million), and the exploitation of its vast forests less extensive at the time of this writing. As with Papua New Guinea, Papua is home to many traditional cultures (250 by one estimate; Petocz 1989). Many of these are forest-dwelling societies, who have provided remarkably prudent stewardship of their forest resources. Thus Papua’s forest wilderness and diverse marine ecosystems are human-managed natural systems that give the impression of being pristine. For environmentalists, conservationists, and research biologists, Papua is a rich mother lode of natural and cultural history to be documented studied, shared, and preserved.

Wonders of Papua

By any standards Papua is special and shrouded in mystery. For nearly a half-century (1962–2000) it was essentially inaccessible to all but a few international field researchers (see Hope et al. 1976) and thus a terra incognita. As each year went by, other blank spots on the globe were filled in by intrepid adventurers and naturalists, making Papua more and more enticing to outside naturalists. Those smitten with Papua could only read early accounts and examine the pre-1962 holdings of museums and research institutions to get an idea of what lay behind the Papuan (then West Irian or Irian Jayan) veil of the unknown. We did know that Papua was home to the tropical Pacific’s only glaciers. We did know that Papua was the home to hundreds, no, thousands of undescribed species of plants and animals, not to mention the lesser life forms. Jared Diamond rediscovered the Golden-fronted Bowerbird in the Foja Mountains in 1980. Tim Flannery described a new mountain-dwelling tree kangaroo in 1994. Gerald Allen collected his first rainbow fish in Papua in 1980 and described his most recent new Papuan species in 1998. Clearly there is so much for us to learn about this little-studied land. Adventurers were claiming first contacts with forest-dwelling peoples as recently as 1990—this added to the several hundred named ethnic groups inhabiting Papua, each with its own language, culture, art, and cosmology.

Geographic and Political Nomenclature

Let us begin our overview of Papua with some discussion of geographic and political nomenclature (see map on end sheets to this book). New Guinea is the term we use to describe the whole island, this largest tropical island, some 2,700 kilometers long by 900 kilometers wide. The eastern half of the island is today the mainland section of Papua New Guinea, which achieved independence from Australia in 1975. The western half of the island is today known informally as Papua (West Papua in some circles). Papua became the official name of western (Indonesian) New Guinea, Indonesia’s easternmost province in 2000. In 2004, Papua Province was illegally but formally bisected; the easternmost and central sections retain the name Papua, and the westernmost section is Irian Jaya Barat (a planned Central Irian Jaya has been put on hold because of a court ruling).

Western New Guinea has held various names over the last hundred years. During the days of Dutch colonial administration this area was named Dutch New Guinea, part of the Dutch East Indies. Upon Indonesian accession of this last fragment of Dutch colonialism, the region was named West Irian (Irian Barat). Shortly thereafter it was given the name Irian Jaya (glorious Irian), and more recently Papua. This last is confusing mainly because the southeastern portion of mainland Papua New Guinea was once officially named Papua, when overseen by colonial Australia. Finally, political activists call western New Guinea West Papua—the name that the local assembly had chosen for the planned independent nation that was to arise in 1962 through a United Nations mandate.

Physiography, Geography, and Geology

Papua is a complex piece of the planet, partly because of its convoluted tectonic history, discussed in some detail in Chapter 2.1. In brief, the Papuan component of the Australian tectonic plate has been rafting northward, building a prodigious central cordillera as well as sweeping up island arcs in the north and northwest. This plate continues to drift northward and northern coastal ranges are presumably still rising.

Mountains define Papuan geography, no doubt. Two east-west ranges dominate—the Central Cordillera (Merauke Range, Maoke is a misnomer; this includes a western component, Sudirman Range, and an eastern component, Jayawijaya Range) and the north coastal ranges that extend westward into Cenderawasih Bay as rugged Yapen Island. The Central Cordillera has been created by the compression of the Australian plate with the Pacific plate, with massive uplift over the last several million years. The highest points of the Sudirman and Jayawijaya ranges are oceanic sediments. This cordillera rises to more than 3,000 meters for its entire length in Papua, creating a challenge for Indonesian road builders wishing to link up the northern and southern catchments. The cordilleran watershed dips rather gradually on its northern face and abruptly on the south side. Heavy rainfall striking the southern scarp has deeply dissected this southern face, creating scores of sediment-laden and unstable rivers that dump out onto a rocky alluvial plain in the south that is almost 200 km wide in the east and only 40 km wide in the far west (west of Timika).

The highest peaks of Papua are scattered about the main cordillera. Highest of all is Mt Jayakusuma or Mt Jaya (4,884 m) once known as Mount Carstensz or Carstensz Toppen, dominating the western terminus of the Merauke Range. Nearby Ngga Pilimsit or Mount Idenburg stands at 4,717 m. In central and eastern segments of the cordillera stand Mount Trikora (formerly Mount Wilhelmina) at 4,730 m and Mount Mandala at 4,640 m. Small, rapidly melting glaciers cap Jaya and Pilimsit.

The accreted island arcs in the north can be seen today as isolated coastal ranges: the Cyclops, Foja, and Van Rees Mountains (north of the Tariku and Taritatu [formerly Idenburg] rivers), mountainous Yapen Island, the Wandammen, Arfak (2,940 m), and Tamrau mountains (2,824 m) of the Vogelkop Peninsula, as well as the Raja Ampat Islands west of the Vogelkop. Strange tectonic contacts apparently have also produced the Kumawa and Fakfak mountains south of the Vogelkop on the Bomberai and Onin peninsulas. The Bird’s Neck region, which connects the Vogelkop with the main body of Papua, is karstic, with fjordlands, white sand barrens, and lakes.

Papua is scored by a range of major rivers both north and south, east and west. In the north, the Mamberamo system drains the interior Mamberamo Basin and virtually the entire northern watershed of Papua’s central range. The main channel of the north-flowing Mamberamo cuts between the Foja Mountains (on the east) and Van Rees Mountains (on the west) on its way to the sea. This ramrod straight, swiftly-flowing stream is one of the most remarkable on this great island, even though it is only 150 km in length. At the head of the Mamberamo, the river drains the great interior basin swamplands that are infested by meander belts and oxbow lakes. The Taritatu (formerly Idenburg) River drains the eastern half of the basin and the central mountains to the south, its tributaries reaching to the Papua New Guinea border and nearly to Jayapura. Its western branch, the Tariku (or Rouffaer) River, drains the smaller western side of the basin, and quickly divides into the main flow of the Rouffaer (on the north) and the Van Daalen (to the south). The Van Daalen drains the north slope of the Central Cordillera, and thus is a much more substantial flow.

Papua’s other great rivers drain the ragged southern scarp of the central range in the eastern half of Papua. Among these, the Digul is the greatest, followed by the Catalina, which in the mountains becomes the famous Baliem that drains the Grand Valley of the Baliem, discovered in the late 1930s by explorer-pilot Richard Archbold. Scores of lesser rivers sweep heavy gravels southward toward the muddy Arafura Sea. These turbid and unstable rivers tumble out of the mountains, with torrential flows in the mountain gorges, and heavily braided channels in the flats that spread out from the bottom of the ranges. As one moves westward, one finds river after river, each shorter than the preceding, until the central mountains pinch off the alluvial plain at the bottom of the Bird’s Neck.

LAKES

Papua has a few prominent lakes. Lake Sentani, near the Papuan capital Jayapura, was apparently created by tectonic movement related to the uplift of the coastal Cyclops Mountains just to the north. The lower Mamberamo features Lake Rombebai, the largest lake in Papua, as well as smaller Lake Bira. These are swampy backwater lakes. At the western end of the central cordillera we find the Paniai Lakes in an interior highland basin. Lake Yamur, on the Bird’s Neck, is home to a freshwater shark. Finally, highlands lakes (Anggi Gigi and Anggi Gita) are found in the Arfak Mountains of the Vogelkop.

SWAMPS,MANGROVES, AND SAVANNAS

The vast lakes plain of the Mamberamo Basin is dominated by seasonally inundated swamplands of various types. There are great coastal swamplands along much of the southern coast, from the Casuarina coast in the southeast to the swamplands south of Timika, far to the west. Indonesia’s largest mangrove ecosystem is nestled in the head of Bintuni Bay, which separates the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) Peninsula from the more southerly Bomberai Peninsula. Elsewhere in Papua, swamps can be found in many alluvial localities where drainage is impeded, around lowland rivers, and in and around Dolok (Yos Sudarso) Island in the far south. In the far southeast, by the Papua New Guinea border, is a swath of savanna that ranges westward to Dolok Island—part of the great Trans-Fly savannas that have the look of Australia rather than New Guinea. This is a highly seasonal low-rainfall zone that toggles from an inundation season to a burning season.

COASTS

Papua’s abundant coastline is not uniform. In the northeast, one finds hilly country reaching the coast, which features a mix of white sand beaches and rocky shorelines. Long stretches of beach dominate in the north, backed by coastal hills. The eastern shore of Cenderawasih (formerly Geelvink) Bay features swamps and mangroves, whereas the western shore is more rugged and hilly. The north side of the Vogelkop is rugged, whereas the south side is low and swampy. Much of the southern and southeastern coastline are low and silty, with dark sand beaches backed by casuarinas, with swamplands further inland. The most spectacular coastlines are found on the south side of the Bird’s Neck, between Arguni Bay and Etna Bay. Here one finds tropical karstic fjordlands that feature coastal mountains rising to more than 1,000 meters, steep cliffs, deep embayments, and scenery galore.

ISLANDS

Papua has more than a thousand fringing islands, from tiny to quite large. The Raja Ampat Islands range off the western coast of the Vogelkop Peninsula, and include Waigeo (3,155 km²), Salawati (1,632 km²), Misool (2,041 km²), Batanta (453 km²), and Kofiau (150 km²), among others. This remarkable archipelago supports the world’s richest coral reefs and considerable endemic forest biodiversity (e.g., Wilson’s Bird of Paradise, Red Bird of Paradise, Waigeo Brush-turkey). The islands of Cenderawasih Bay include two isolated oceanic islands with distinct island faunas (Biak/Supiori, 2,497 km², and Numfoor, 311 km²), as well as the mountainous land-bridge island of Yapen (2,227 km²). In addition, there are the Padaido Islands southeast of Biak, and Num Island west of Yapen, and a number of small coastal islands in the south and west portions of the Bay. Small islands also dot the north coast and fringe the Fakfak and Triton Bay region. Papua’s largest island is Dolok (11,192 km²), which is a vast mudbank outwash from the silt-laden rivers of the southeast coast. It is often forgotten because of its unpre-possessing nature and isolation, and its minimal distance from the mainland.

Ecological Setting

New Guinea is the northern quadrant of the Australian tectonic plate; thus this island is geologically one with the Australian continent. And yet in spite of geological linkages, there are considerable environmental differences. In particular, Australia today is dry and temperate, whereas New Guinea is tropical and perhumid. These two fundamental distinctions can explain much of the differences between these sister biotas, north and south.

Climatologically, Papua is remarkable mainly for its cloudiness. It is perhaps one of the cloudiest places on earth. Spanning latitudes from the equator to 12 degrees south latitude, Papua’s equatorial climate is seasonally dominated by the Northwest Monsoon and the Southeast Trade Winds. In most parts of Papua, the effects of the Northwest Monsoon dominate in the period from November to March, bringing rain and unsettled weather. The Southeast Trade Winds tend to bring cool and dry weather, and predominate from April until September. That said, Papua has many microclimates. Rainfall regimes range from low in the southeast (less than 2,000 mm/year) to extremely high on the southern scarp of the Central Cordillera (more than 5,000 mm/year). The highest rainfall on record for Papua is from Tembagapura town, which receives 7,500 mm/year on average. In the wetter areas, the typical seasons are reversed, and the most rain falls in the April–October period. In fact, the wettest sites receive rain from both the monsoon and the trades, and they tend to be found in the mountains along the southern front of the Central Cordillera. Moreover, annual accumulation in the very wettest areas tends to show great variability. This variability can exceed the mean annual accumulations recorded for typical medium-rainfall sites.

Seasonally, temperature varies little. Elevation is the key to temperature in equatorial zones. This lapse rate is equivalent to 5 C per 1,000 m elevation. Thus, at sea level, in the forests near Timika, one will encounter an unpleasant combination of high humidity and warm temperature day and night on all but the coolest days of the austral winter. By contrast, at 4,000 m in the Sudirman Range one must expect regular night frosts during the dry season, when the skies are clear. Above 4,500 m periodic snowfalls are common. And glaciers cap the highest peaks of the Jaya Mountains (formerly the Carstensz Range). These glaciers expanded outward and downward during the Pleistocene cooling, melted altogether by 6,000 years BP, and returned during the recent cooling, only to begin retreating again in the last century.

The elevation-temperature equation is a defining environmental phenomenon in mountainous Papua. This allows essentially distinct biotas to inhabit adjacent patches of land, separated only by elevation. It certainly explains much of the species-richness of Papua (beta diversity).

Rain shadows exist in some interior valleys (such as the Baliem), on the Bomb-erai Peninsula, and in the Trans-Fly of the far southeast. Rainfall is also slightly attenuated along the northern coast, from the mouth of the Mamberamo east to Jayapura. Much of the interior receives well in excess of 3,000 mm/year.

Papua is a land in flux. Significant chronic disturbance is produced by ongoing mountain-building in contest with rainfall-driven erosional processes, as well as by periodic vulcanism, human-caused and naturally occurring fire regimes, plus El Niño droughts. Over the long history of human occupation, swidden agriculture has disturbed large swaths of habitat, most of which is now regenerated forest. Thus historical disturbance is a dominant factor dictating the distribution and pattern of today’s vegetation. Much of what appears to be virgin rainforest is, in fact, the product of recent and not-so-recent patch disturbance. This is abundantly evident when conducting plot-based plant surveys in the forest. Thus any attempt to characterize forest types is a rough generalization, and at best a qualitative assessment with minimal predictive power at the taxonomic scale.

FOREST TYPES

Closed forest is the default vegetation type over virtually the entirety of Papua except perhaps in the southeast (although the fire regime that produces savannas there may be anthropogenic). Papua’s forests are highly species rich, with minimal stand dominance by particular tree species, and with remarkable history-driven variation from site to site, even within single catchments. One-hectare stands of forest typically support between 70 and 200 species of trees larger than 10 cm diameter breast height (dbh). It is thus difficult to characterize the forest types of Papua taxonomically. Instead, forest types are delineated by elevation, rainfall, and structure. In general, New Guinea’s forests can be termed tropical humid forests. Tree species of the following families are important components of this tree flora: Podocarpaceae, Fagaceae, Moraceae, Lauraceae, Meliaceae, Myristicaceae, Sapindaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Combretaceae, Sapotaceae, Annonaceae, Clusiaceae, and Rubiaceae, among others (Oatham and Beehler 1997).

In the lowlands, one finds tall alluvial forests in well-drained catchment basins, as well as various types of periodically inundated swamp forests in the more poorly drained areas. The finest alluvial forests are grand, indeed, with emergent species reaching 60 meters (e.g., Octomeles sumatrana), and canopy height topping 45 meters. The canopy of this alluvial lowland forest is often irregular and broken, except where there has been uniform regeneration after some disturbance. Typical canopy tree genera of the wooded swamps include Barringtonia, Terminalia, Alstonia, Diospyros, Carallia, Syzygium, and Campnosperma. Palm swamps, dominated by sago, pandanus, or nipa are commonplace in the vast deltaic areas of the major rivers (e.g., Digul). These grade into herbaceous swamplands where inundation is the prevalent condition. Coastally one finds small strips of mangrove or large and extensive mangroves forests, depending upon conditions. These comprise species of Sonneratia, Xylocarpus, Brugiera, Rhizophora, and Avicennia. Mangrove formations are dominant in the south and southeast, between the southern Vogelkop and Bomberai Peninsula, and along the Waropen coast (northeastern Cenderawasih Bay). In the far southeast one encounters closed monsoon forest that grades southward into Melaleuca woodland and Eucalyptus savanna.

Much of Papua is hilly, and here forests are on well-drained soils and tend to be less grand, with smaller-boled trees of lesser height. In the low hills on the southern side of the Central Cordillera above Timika one finds a very poor white sand and heath forest that is both structurally bizarre and taxonomically distinct. Above 1,000 meters one encounters submontane forests that in places have a strong representation of oaks (Castanopsis acuminatissima, Lithocarpus spp.) and several genera of Lauraceae. A cloud line settles on the mountains at varying elevations, depending on local conditions. This produces cloud forest conditions, which are typified by the abundance of moss on tree trunks as well as an effusion of epiphytes. This cloud line most typically can be found between 1,500 and 2,500 meters elevation. Midmontane forests are more species-poor and can be dominated by the Antarctic beech Nothofagus as well as several genera of gymnosperms from the family Podocarpaceae (Podocarpus, Dacrycarpus, Dacrydium, Phyllocladus). Above 3,000 meters, one encounters an elfin woodland that is low in stature (15 m), and small-boled (10–30 cm) and dense, with heavy mossing and with tangled moss-laden root mats on the ground in the place of soil. Climbing higher into the mountains, this leads to areas where patches of dense thicket-like dwarf forest is interdigitated with open boggy grasslands in the more poorly-drained and frost-prone areas. In these areas one can find prominent stands of large Dacrycarpus compactus as well as the more conifer-like Papuacedrus papuanus. On the summit areas above 4,000 meters one encounters a mix of tussock grasslands, rocky areas, low ericaceous thickets, and a variety of tropical alpine herbaceous vegetation.

Botanically, Papua is remarkable, estimated to house more than 15,000 species of vascular plants, notably some 2000 species of orchids, more than 100 rhododendrons, one species of the great and ancient Araucaria conifers—Papua’s tallest tree, as well as the magnificent and valuable kauri pine (Agathis labillardierei). Dipterocarp trees are relatively uncommon, but appear in abundance in certain patches, the result of some natural disturbance regime. Other important timber trees include Intsia bijuga (merbau), Pometia pinnata (matoa), Pterocarpus indicus (rosewood), and Dracontomelon (black walnut), among others.

Fauna

VERTEBRATES

Birds dominate the Papuan vertebrate fauna, with more than 600 species recorded. This includes more than 25 species of birds of paradise, three species of cassowaries, and some two dozen each of parrots, pigeons, raptors, and kingfishers. The mammals are less in evidence, mainly because of chronic hunting and their nocturnal habits. Fruit bats, insectivorous bats, tree kangaroos, possums, and rats are the best represented among the 180 or so species. Amphibians include more than 150 species of frogs, many still unknown to science. Reptiles include two crocodiles, 61 snakes, and 141 lizards. The fishes comprise ca 150 freshwater species and more than 2,250 marine taxa (about 1,500 of which inhabit coral reef ecosystems). Of special note are the 36 species of rainbow fish that inhabit Papua. This is an incomplete list, undoubtedly, and new taxa were described as recently as 1998.

TERRESTRIAL INVERTEBRATES

The forest invertebrate fauna is diverse beyond imagination, defying our ability to enumerate it. There are probably in excess of 100,000 species of insects alone, only a fraction of these having been cataloged. Most prominent are the huge and beautiful birdwing butterflies, the giant phasmid stick insects, several lineages of giant beetle (longicorn, dynastine, etc.), and the world’s largest moth. One can also find freshwater crabs, a range of edible freshwater shrimp and crayfish, and an abundance of blood-sucking leeches.

MARINE LIFE AND CORAL REEFS

The marine reef environments found in Cenderawasih Bay and the Raja Ampat Islands are among the very richest on earth in terms of species diversity. One finds extraordinary numbers of hard corals, mollusks, and reef fishes. These environments are also very productive, and form an important sustainable resource for local communities. The region also supports a significant pelagic fishery, with key migratory species (such as various tuna).

Human Cultures

CULTURAL SETTING

Although the island of New Guinea is rather young in geological terms, its peoples are of apparently ancient stocks, and there is evidence that humans has been present on the island at least 40,000 years, perhaps longer. Not surprisingly, the details of the earlier habitation on the island are scanty, and it is possible that humans have occupied New Guinea for as long as 60,000 years. The whole island of New Guinea supports more than 1,200 language groups. No other comparable land mass supports more languages. This could be taken as an indication of the longevity of human occupation of New Guinea. The Papuan half of the island supports about 250 languages (dwarfed by PNG’s 800 languages). We can offer no explanation as to why the west supports so many fewer languages, but physiographic and biogeographic diversity may offer a partial explanation (or it may be nothing more than sampling error—a nonconformity in classification methodology by scientists working in Asia vs. the Pacific).

Many of Papua’s language groups are small and insular, with fewer than 1,000 speakers. A few other languages (e.g., Dani, Asmat) are spoken by many. These dominant languages seem to indicate cultural dominance as well. As with Papua New Guinea, the language diversity parallels diversity in local culture and thus Papua is culturally very diverse and heterogeneous. This is one reason there has been only limited local development in Papua. Small, diverse, egalitarian societies do not have the human capacity and structure needed for complex social and economic structures to develop, as has been explained eloquently by Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel (1999). The absence of stratified societies and the lack of key domesticated livestock and grain crops has certainly contributed to the generally minor development of local economies in Papua. In one point of contrast, important sweet potato cultures in the fertile valleys of the central highlands have developed since the arrival of the sweet potato on the island—perhaps as little as 500 years ago. The major traditional population centers are found in the interior uplands (Baliem and Ilaga valleys, Paniai Lakes, and Arfak Mountains). Most societies are forest-or coastal-dwelling, with primary dependence upon sweet potatoes and pigs (interior) or fish and yams (coastal). It seems all New Guineans are accomplished gardeners as well as accomplished warriors. In most instances, the warlike traditions have been suppressed over the last century, mainly through the teachings of Christian missionaries.

HISTORY OF WESTERN ENGAGEMENT AND POLITICAL HISTORY

Papua was undoubtedly first contacted by Islamic traders from the west in search of spices and other exotic trade goods. The undocumented first contacts between the traders and the coastal Papuans perhaps first took place more than a thousand years ago. But initial trade was probably local—between Papuan people and those of Maluku just to the west and south. Major trade probably did not begin until after 1000 bce. The first Europeans to sail the coastline of Papua were Portuguese, in the 1500s, and they were followed by the whole cast of exploring nations (Spanish, Dutch, then English). These explorers were seeking trade routes as well as products to trade. This exploring era lasted from the 1500s to the early 1800s. It was followed by a period of regular trade (bêche-de-mer or trepang, bird of paradise skins, turtle shell, massoi bark, etc.), which, in turn was followed by initial settlements (trade driven), then missionary activity. Early naturalist/explorers included Alfred Russel Wallace, who visited the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) and Raja Ampat Islands in the 1840s, and Odoardi Beccari and Luigi d’Albertis, who visited the Arfak Mountains in the 1870s. The Dutch made a preliminary claim to New Guinea west of the current border of 141 east longitude in 1826, but this infamous border was not formalized with the colonial powers of Britain until 1895 (in the south) and with Germany in 1910 (in the north). What followed was a rather weak attempt to establish government outstations, some rather stronger efforts to explore the interior (1900–1930), and to surmount Papua’s forbidding high peaks. Remarkably, the highest peak of Papua, Mt Jaya, was not successfully ascended until 1962 by Austrian Heinrich Harrer. Dutch, British, and American biological expeditions were conducted into the remote interior in the 1930s. Most famous was the Snow Mountains Expedition led by Richard Archbold, who discovered the populous Baliem Valley in 1938 during his aerial reconnaissance flights that allowed the expedition to ascend successfully high into the interior mountains. World War II brought this era of exploration to a close. After the War, independence issues dominated Indonesia and this led to the eventual annexation of Papua into the young Indonesian state in 1962. Indonesia has aggressively developed Papua through a bout of transmigration of landless poor from western Indonesia, through significant government and military oversight (which have included considerable conflict, tension, and bloodshed between Papuan ethnics and western Indonesians), and through natural resource exploitation (mining, fishing, logging). One expects this exploitation to expand considerably in the next several decades, and there is a question whether this exploitation will be predatory or, we hope, environmentally and culturally sustainable. Certainly that issue is a theme that runs through this book.

This Book and Its Goals

This book, following the model of the preceding eight volumes of the Ecology of Indonesia series, seeks to provide a clear, comprehensive, yet concise account of the environment of this easternmost region of the vast archipelagic nation of Indonesia. The text is written with a university student in mind, but there is authoritative material that will be of interest to the serious academic researcher as well. We have departed from the plan of the original series in that we have sought out the world’s experts to contribute chapters on their specialties. In doing so, we have collected the very latest thinking on each subject. Through judicious editing, we have made certain that this cutting-edge material is accessible to the reader. We have attempted to avoid use of specialized and jargon terminology, or at least carefully defined these terms for the reader. Our goal is to have compiled a broad and comprehensive accounting of the natural history of Papua.

Literature Cited

Diamond, J. (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton and Company, New York.

Hope, G.S., J.A. Peterson, U. Radok, and I. Allison (eds.). 1976. The Equatorial Glaciers of New Guinea. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam.

Petocz, R. 1989. Conservation and Development in Irian Jaya. Brill, Leiden.

Oatham, M., and B. Beehler. 1997. Richness, taxonomic composition, and species patchiness in three lowland forest plots in Papua New Guinea. Pp. 649–668 in Dallmeier, F., and J. Comisky (eds.) Forest Biodiversity Research, Monitoring and Modeling: A Conceptual Background and Old World Case Studies. Parthenon Publishing, Casterton, UK.

Marshall, A. J., and Beehler, B. M. (eds.). 2006. The Ecology of Papua. Singapore: Periplus Editions.

1.2. Biological Exploration of New Guinea

DAVID G. FRODIN

BIOLOGICAL EXPLORATION in New Guinea and its surrounding islands has a relatively long post-Columbian history, but until the 1760s it was casual, with curiosa and narrative descriptions the most tangible results. Even the great voyages of the subsequent decades paid but fleeting visits, with some—notably the Endeavour—actually rebuffed; the few contemporary attempts at settlement from outside were failures. Only in the last third of the nineteenth century did serious exploration begin, with the last large white spaces in the interior highlands filled in just as World War II approached.

The marvelous birds of paradise, whose center of diversity is in mainland New Guinea, were among the first objects of natural history to attract attention from Europeans, but for long they were known only from their legless skins, obtained in direct or market trade. But the land soon came to be seen as hostile to settlement, even for the Portuguese and Spanish and, after them, the Dutch East India Company, so no extended surveys were made. Indeed, until the latter part of the eighteenth century (thus through most of Linnaeus’s lifetime) New Guinea was effectively beyond the frontier, with only its western fringes anywhere near a commercial realm (and so—fortunately for posterity—within the reach of Rumphius at Ambon). Otherwise, acquisition of geographical and natural history knowledge was casual, with Dampier among the few prominent contributors.

The great voyages of the seven decades preceding 1840 did touch upon several parts of mainland New Guinea and its neighboring islands, with the naturalists of one voyage demonstrating that birds of paradise indeed had legs. Yet, although they established the main geographical outlines of the region, their visits were brief and their collections, though primary, were generally small and from but few localities. Apart from these contributions—not all of them fully reported upon—the only substantial collections until 1870 were those made in the late 1820s on the southwestern coast by Zipelius and Macklot and later—mainly in the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) peninsula—by Wallace in 1858 and von Rosenberg from then through the 1860s. Not even the formal annexation of western New Guinea by the Dutch Indian government in 1848 provoked significant activity.

The opening of the Suez Canal, the development of settlements in Australia, increasing commercial interest in the Pacific Islands, the growth of the plume trade, and scientific curiosity (particularly in the wake of Wallace’s Malay Archipelago) finally led to sustained outside interest in Papuasia and an opening up of its interiors. A veritable rush by explorers then ensued, particularly in the wake of the territorial acquisitions by Germany in the northeast and its large island neighbors, and Britain in the southeast—all under the gaze (and even sponsorship) of the now well-developed popular press.

By 1914 very considerable progress had been made, with after 1900 greater official interest—but largely in the Dutch and German spheres, surpassing the very effective work by Macgregor, administrator in British New Guinea over the decade leading up to 1898. Sadly, that was succeeded by relative indifference—particularly after 1901 with transfer of control to Australia. After World War I (though slightly later in western New Guinea), the rest of New Guinea also became something of a backwater—with few official undertakings in natural history. Exploration did, however, continue—though largely under outside sponsorship—leading to further major discoveries, particularly in the 1930s. By the end of that decade, the major outlines of the biota had become known—particularly after the prodigious efforts of the Third Archbold Expedition—and the age of primary exploration was over.

In contrast to the Great War, during World War II New Guinea and its islands were a major theater of conflict, greatly increasing the region’s profile. The stage was now set for three decades of secondary exploration, much of it under the auspices of the administering countries (including their metropolitan organizations), and the establishment of local collections and research facilities. Through the 1960s, substantial resources were allocated to land, agricultural, forest, and marine surveys in both east and west; in 1959 the Dutch mounted a final, major exploring expedition to the last white spot on the map, Juliana Top (now Mt Mandala) and the western Star Mountains. There was also much extra-official exploration and other activity, including the establishment of biological stations, beginning with what is now the Wau Ecology Institute, set up in 1961 by the late J. Linsley Gressitt.

After transfer of control of western New Guinea to Indonesia (1963/1969) and, in 1975, the independence of Papua New Guinea (PNG), official efforts fell away—particularly after 1980 in PNG. Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea (1982; see section on Collections below) could thus be said to mark the end of an era. Individual and group exploration and research (under sponsorship or otherwise) has, however, continued over the subsequent quarter-century, now with ecology, conservation, and sustainability as guiding themes. In this, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—including universities in both west and east New Guinea as well as research stations—have played an increasing role. Though progress—perhaps inevitably—has been fragmented, there have been significant achievements, some of them recorded in the Post-World War II section, below. Future exploratory efforts should focus particularly on poorly known areas (documented in recent conservation assessments; see References section, below). But at the same time work must continue on consolidating, enhancing, preserving, and making more available our knowledge of what we already have to hand—not easy in the face of competition for research resources, changing interests, insecurity, and indeed a fall in new entrants to the sciences.

Before the Rush: Early History (1500–1875)

WHEN BIRDS OF PARADISE HAD NO LEGS (1500-1815)

1500–1760

Settled by humans in the late Quaternary, with two further waves of immigrants respectively in the early and post-historical Recent, New Guinea and its islands—particularly after the Lapita migrations—were initially visited by Malay (and perhaps also Chinese) traders from Dobo (in the Aru Islands) and elsewhere. The earliest recorded explorers were, however, post-Columbian Europeans, sailing from both west and east partly in search of the great southern land then thought to be necessary to balance the large masses in the north, particularly Eurasia. Not until the 17th century—and passing into general knowledge only much later—were the northern fringes of the supposed southern landmass shown to be a great island.

Although Magellan’s expedition—to which we owe the first European use of the word Papua and knowledge of its birds of paradise—sailed near New Ireland in 1521, the first to arrive in the waters off the mainland was the Portuguese Jorge de Meneses in 1527. But, reaching only as far as Biak and the north coast of the Vogelkop Peninsula, he would have had no idea of its extent. He was followed in 1528 by Alvaro de Saavedra and in 1537 by Hernando de Grijalva, neither in turn venturing beyond Yapen and Biak. In 1545 Ynigo Ortiz de Retes, also—like Saavedra—in an attempt to sail to Mexico, reached as far as Manam and the Schouten Islands (off the mouths of the Ramu and Sepik) as well as the western Admiralty Islands, Aua and Wuvulu, before having to turn back to Tidore. On the voyage back he called in near present-day Sarmi and named the land Nueva Guinea because the people looked like Africans. Entry from the Americas only came later: in 1567—two years before Mercator’s world map first appeared—the Spaniard Alvaro de Mendaña discovered the later-lost Solomon Islands. He attempted a return in 1595 but died at sea, with Pedro Fernández de Quirós eventually taking command of that expedition. In 1606 Quirós, with papal and other support, once more sailed to the South Pacific, discovering what is now Vanuatu; but there his expedition fell apart. His associate Luis Vaéz de Torres—aided by the southeasterly trade winds—continued west towards New Guinea, reaching the present Milne Bay Islands near Samarai (where, on Sideia, the company dined on what is now the first record of a Papuasian marsupial) and afterwards sailing along the south coast and traversing the strait now named after him.

The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies set sail in 1597 and soon afterwards contacts by Dutchmen with New Guinea began in earnest. Willem Jansz on the Duyfken in 1606 may have been the first; but more important was the voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire in 1616, who viewed much of the north coast along with Manus Island and present-day New Ireland. Both voyages suffered massacres. In 1623 Jan Carstensz sailed along the southwestern coast and was the first to see—in disbelief—the snow-and ice-capped highest peaks of the mainland which for long bore his name (but now collectively are Mt Jaya). Two decades later, in 1643, Abel Tasman touched upon New Ireland and, for the first time, sailed by the north coast of what is now New Britain, but yet thought them continuous with New Guinea (and New Holland, as Australia was then known). But this would be the last such effort on their part: Jan Compagnie was a commercial enterprise, and of potential profit little was to be seen. Contacts with New Guinea became largely restricted to its western fringes, with which an active trade would be carried on and whence G. E. Rumphius, from 1653 at Ambon in the Jan Compagnie’s service for half a century, received much valuable information, in time incorporated into his famous Thesaurus amboinensis (1705) and Herbarium amboinense (1741–1750, 1755).

In 1700 came the epoch-making visit by the Englishman William Dampier—the region’s first enlightened explorer. In his ancient ship Roebuck he visited the north coast and discovered Mussau and Emira north of New Ireland, sailed along the north coast of New Ireland and then past his St George’s Bay along the south coast of what was still thought to be a large peninsula. After discovering the deep strait between it and New Guinea, he bestowed on what was now an island the name Nova Britannia (New Britain) by which it has been known ever since (save as Neu-Pommern during German rule). But the ex-buccaneer and explorer was also a natural historian and collector, so he brought back curiosa for appreciation and study: the earliest scientific specimens from the region (apart from those from Rumphius surviving in Florence).

Publication of Dampier’s A Voyage to New-Holland (1703) stimulated further coastal exploration over the subsequent three decades, particularly in the west (with Dampier himself returning in 1705), and in 1714 the Sultan of Tidore ceded his territories in New Guinea (with the southern Moluccas) to the Dutch. But it was the now-ascendant French and English who were to set an entirely new trend. Taking a cue from Dampier, most voyages from the 1750s onwards involved serious scientific work as well as exploration and contact, and carried naturalists or physician-naturalists.

1760–1815

The first of the new expeditions was British. In 1767 Philip Carteret in the Swallow visited parts of the southwestern Pacific, the northwestern Solomons and greater New Britain—and found that St George’s Bay was a channel. He thus gave the northern island its name of Nova Hibernia (New Ireland), so-called ever since (save as Neu-Mecklenberg during German rule). Significantly, Cart-eret discovered some safe anchorages at its southwestern end (including Gower Harbor—soon afterwards named Port Praslin by Bougainville and visited by many later expeditions, and in the late nineteenth century the scene of the tragic Nouvelle France settlement scheme). Carteret was followed in 1768 by the Frenchman Louis Antoine de Bougainville who, in two ships (La Boudeuse and L’Étoile) and with Philibert Commerson as naturalist, visited among other places parts of the southeastern coast, the Louisiade Archipelago, the northern Solomon Islands (notably those now known as Choiseul, Bougainville, and Buka), and southwestern New Ireland before hastening westwards to Java to relieve his crews. In 1770 James Cook, with J. Banks and D. Solander, definitively verified New Guinea’s distinctness from New Holland (now known as Australia) by sailing through Torres Strait. Beyond that treacherous passage, the Endeavour only landed on the southwest coast for one day, where Banks made some thirty plant collections—of which a list survives—under protection of the ship’s guns and marines.

The French now used the new knowledge of the region, particularly that gained by Bougainville and Commerson, for economic gain—their governor in Mauritius, Pierre Poivre, was determined to break the Dutch spice monopoly. With advice from Commerson (who had joined Poivre’s service), Simon Provost in 1769–1770 (as part of an expedition on two ships, L’Étoile du Matin and Vigilant) and then Pierre Sonnerat in 1771–1772 (under Provost), as part of extensive missions in the Moluccas and Philippines, reached Gebé (near Gag) in the extreme west of Papuasia; but they touched neither on other New Guinean islands nor the mainland (in spite of the title of Sonnerat’s popular 1776 book, Voyage à la Nouvelle-Guinée). Economically, however, the French voyagers were successful; the principal spices came to be established in the Mascarenes and elsewhere, in time contributing to the demise of the Dutch East India Company. Sonnerat’s natural history collections (Paris) are primarily zoological; he also lives on in the epithet for one of that museum’s collections databases.

In 1781 a Spaniard, Francisco Antonio Maurelle, discovered more isles of the Bismarcks including the Los Negros near Manus; but still the north coast of New Britain remained poorly known. This would be partially remedied in the next decade. In 1792 and 1793 another French world voyage—charged by Louis XVI with searching for the lost expedition of La Pérouse and under the command of A. R. J. de Bruny d’Entrecasteaux—was in New Guinea waters with La Recherche and L’Espérance. The two ships called at several points, including for the first time Huon Gulf (named after the Espérance’s commander, Huon de Kermadec); other important work was done in the Milne Bay region, southwestern New Ireland, around the Bismarck Sea, and on tiny Rawak off Waigeo. Many well-known and still-current geographical names were at this time introduced. D’Entrecasteaux’s naturalists were J. J. Houtou de La Billiardière, Louis Ventenat, L. A. Deschamps, and Claude Riche, with Félix de Lahaie accompanying them as a gardener-botanist. Sadly, the commander died at sea west of Manus on 20 July 1793 and later, in Java, the expedition broke up in confusion over the consequences of the French Revolution (A. Hesmivy d’Auribeau, second in command, was a staunch royalist—but died in 1794 just before capture, while La Billiardière led the republican faction). La Billiardière’s collections (and those of others) were confiscated by the Dutch and sent to England, but through Banks’s good offices restored to him a few years later (his plants are now in Florence). Unfortunately for Papuasia, he published only on his Australian and New Caledonian plants (the former in 1804– 1807 as Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen, the latter in 1824–1825 as Sertum austro-caledonicum). Lahaie’s own collections are in Paris (and Geneva).

REALITY, DISAPPOINTMENT, AND RENEWAL (1815-1875)

1815–1850

The wars and disruptions of the French Republican and Napoleonic eras were to restrict exploration for the next 20 years or so, but after 1815 a new flowering took place, associated with the growth of mercantile trade and the related development of detailed marine charts—the latter first undertaken on a large scale by Flinders in the Investigator.

In New Guinea and its islands the quarter-century from 1815 was dominated by several great French voyages—all with naturalists—which collectively added substantially to natural history knowledge and amassed considerable collections (now in the Natural History Museum in Paris, though many perhaps remain little-known or even undocumented). The voyages were part of a diplomatic and mercantile initiative, intended to show that after all its humiliations France still mattered—but, save for French Polynesia (and, somewhat later, New Caledonia), they did not lead much to new overseas territories (although the French claim to Adélie Land in Antarctica dates from the visit there by the last of these expeditions). Inspired by the example of von Humboldt, the collections, elaborated by professional naturalists, formed a basis for many sumptuous publications—these in turn inspiring the undertakings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

First into New Guinea waters were the Uranie and Physicienne under Louis de Freycinet in 1818–1819. His naturalists were Jean R. C. Quoy and Joseph Gaimard with Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré. They called, however, only at Rawak (off Waigeo—earlier visited by d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition; see above)—en route to Guam. While returning to France, the Uranie was lost in the Falklands (also known as Malvinas) Islands, though many collections survived (and others were added).

Freycinet was followed in 1822–1824 by the Coquille under Louis Duperrey; accompanying him were Jules Sébastien Dumont d’Urville, Prosper Garnot, and René Lesson. That team collected insects, birds, other animals, and plants in the Solomons, Port Praslin (southern New Ireland), Rawak (see above) and Doré Bay (Manokwari, in the Vogelkop Peninsula), this last spot a new frontier for science—though first surveyed in 1775 by Thomas Forrest. Lesson in particular there collected and studied birds of paradise, and was the first to learn—three centuries on from when, in 1522, skins of Paradisaea minor had reached Seville with the Vittoria—that they had legs; but his collections (and, particularly, living individuals) then helped to create the more than half-century-long fashion in Europe (and elsewhere) for their feathers—and, in turn, contribute to popular conservation awareness.

Later Dumont d’Urville led two more expeditions through the region: the first during 1826–1829 in L’Astrolabe (ex-Coquille), with Quoy, Lesson, and Gaimard as naturalists, calling at New Ireland, the present Astrolabe Bay off Madang, Doré Bay, and Waigeo as well as—for the first time after Dampier—sailing along the south coast of New Britain (naming, among other places, Cape Merkus and Jacquinot Bay, the latter after his second-in-command Charles Hector Jacquinot); and the second in 1838–1839 and 1840 as part of his voyages to the South Pole in L’Astrolabe and (under C. H. Jacquinot) La Zélée with naturalists Jacques Hombron, Honoré Jacquinot, and Elie J. F. Le Guillou—respectively specializing in zoology, botany, and entomology. Around New Guinea they called at various points: Triton Bay (where the Dutch settlement had then been recently abandoned), the Louisiades (to complete d’Entrecasteaux’s surveys), and also sailed along the southeastern coast (naming the Varirata ridge near present-day Port Moresby as the Astrolabe Range).

Other nations, however, were not inactive. In 1820 the Dutch, with the Indies restored to them (and accorded international recognition from 1824), set up under Willem I a Natural Sciences Commission (Natuurkundige Commissie). Over the next thirty years they were to make extensive expeditions, inland as well as coastal, in the still poorly-known archipelago—but mortality was high. Among these was, in 1828, a visit to New Guinea. In connection with a projected settlement, A. J. van Delden with the Triton and Iris led a surveying expedition along much of the southwest coast. Accompanying van Delden were Commission members Heinrich C. Macklot, Alexander Zipelius, and Salomon Müller, the last the first to document the marked zoological differences between the western and eastern parts of the Indies. They were accompanied by two artists, P. van Oort and G. van Raalten. The settlement—known as Merkusoord after then then-Governor of the Moluccas and one of the promoters, Pieter Merkus—was established in the lands of the Lobo at Triton Bay (not far east of present-day Kaimana) and protected by a fort, du Bus (after the then-Commissar-General of the Indies, Leonard du Bus de Gissignies). All these names have been used in collections and literature and here are set out for convenience. But the settlement did not last long; and of the naturalists and artists only Müller was to survive early death or (in Macklot’s case) murder. Their collections—the first significant lot from this part of New Guinea and for decades one of the few available—made their way to Leiden in the Netherlands and were variously written up by Temminck, Blume, Müller, and others.

From 1840 the British returned, but—like the Dutch—were now concerned as much with detailed coastal and hydrographic survey as with primary exploration. This continued a tradition begun with the Investigator under Flinders and skillfully developed over the middle decades of the nineteenth century (and since, with modifications). Such surveys—tedious but essential in a new and increasingly global age of commerce and settlement—did, however, continue to provide opportunities for natural history research. Indeed, it was on such a voyage that the young Charles Darwin sailed with Robert Fitzroy in 1831–1836. After 1850, however, surveys of Australasia and the western Pacific were largely conducted from Sydney rather than London.

The first of the Royal Navy vessels to sail through New Guinea waters were the Sulphur (with the Starling) under Edward Belcher (who had succeeded F. W. Beechey on what had become an interminable voyage). Himself strongly interested in natural history and assisted by R. B. Hinds and A. G. Barclay, respectively as naturalist-surgeon and gardener-botanist, Belcher called in to the Solomons, Port Praslin (southwestern New Ireland), Kairiru off the north coast, and Yapen, collecting some animals and plants (now at London: BMNH, Kew)—though with rather less profit than in the eastern Pacific and the Americas, the voyage’s main objectives. The Sulphur was soon followed by two more focused voyages to the south, reflecting the increasing importance of the future Australia and the passage between it and New Guinea, the treacherous Torres Strait—now becoming a key route between India, Southeast Asia, and New South Wales. The 1842–1846 voyage of the Fly and Bramble under F. P. Blackwood with, as geologist, J. Beete Jukes and a naturalist-artist, John MacGillivray, focused in particular on the Torres Strait and the northern Australian coast, but also (in 1845) examined the western Gulf of Papua and discovered the Fly and Turama rivers, sailing some ways up the Fly. Blackwood’s work was continued by the Rattlesnake under Owen Stanley in 1846–1850, with particular attention to the Louisiades, the future China Strait, and the southeastern coasts (including Yule Island); he was accompanied by Mac-Gillivray and the future evolutionist T. H. Huxley (who in particular collected cnidarians and mollusks). The emphasis on natural history in both voyages was on geology, zoology, and marine biology, with but few land plants collected (all at BMNH). Jukes and MacGillivray, respectively, wrote the narratives of these last two voyages, Owen Stanley sadly having died at Sydney before the return (under C. B. Yule) of the Rattlesnake to Britain via Cape Horn. But, in contrast to the work of the Sulphur, publication of the scientific results would be somewhat piecemeal—times were harder, and the Admiralty was more interested in those of the Southern Ocean voyage of the Erebus and Terror.

All this exploration was, however, not followed by much settlement. An attempt had been made by an English party in 1795 at Doré Bay, but until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that at Triton Bay mentioned above would be the most serious effort. But it, too, would soon be defeated by disease and a hostile environment. Missions also remained few and far between; that of the Congregatio Mariae at Woodlark Island—being the first in the east, following proclamation of the apostolic vicariate of Melanesia by Pope Pius IX. Though after some years also suffering the fate of Merkusoord, the station was during 1847–1852 a collecting locality for one of the Marist priests, Père J. Xavier H. Montrouzier—the earliest French missionary-naturalist to be active in the New Guinea region. At and around the settlement he collected insects, mollusks, and fish (Paris, partly lost), but no plants. From Woodlark he moved to New Caledonia, settling on the north-westerly Ile Art. In 1855 he published (at Lyon, France) his pioneer Essai sur la faune de l’île de Woodlark ou Moiou.

1850–1875

With the departure of the Rattlesnake, the age of the major exploring and survey expeditions for the New Guinea region was over. The way, however, had been paved for safe passage of commercial shipping, including the new mixed steam and sail ships. But official interest remained relatively low in this third quarter of the nineteenth century save for its last five years or so when potential annexations loomed. Instead, it was independent, often privately sponsored naturalists—particularly in the west, closer to the developing East Indian shipping network and its connections to Australia, Asia, and Europe—who came to dominate natural history exploration for these years. Some, such as Miklucho-Maclay as well as Beccari and d’Albertis, had official assistance in the form of passage on naval vessels. Extension of mission networks provided other opportunities, notably at Doré Bay, the Torres Strait Islands (from 1871; see below), Port Moresby (1874), and the Duke of York Islands (1875); some of the missionaries themselves made collections and sent them home.

The first was none other than the most famous: Alfred Russel Wallace, who during his sojourn in Malesia made two visits to the New Guinea region. In 1857 he visited the Aru Islands, while in 1858 he spent a few weeks collecting at Doré Bay (primarily insects but also birds). Himself largely ill and coast-bound, from there his collectors went into the Arfak Mountains, achieving many new finds. In 1860, he collected (and observed) on Gam Island and Waigeo, while his assistant Charles Allen reached Salawati, Misool, and the Sorong area of the northwestern Vogelkop Peninsula. Their collections are mainly in London (BMNH). Wallace was followed by other naturalists—some of them colorful—who also sought out the northwestern peninsular region and the Raja Ampat Islands to the west. The sword-carrying German Baron C. B. H. von Rosenberg collected birds in several visits over 1858–1870 (Leiden, BMNH), meeting Wallace at Doré Bay and overlapping with Allen in Misool; while in 1864 Heinrich Bernstein collected animals at Sorong, Waigeo, and Salawati.

But going into the last third of the nineteenth century—particularly with the opening of the Suez Canal and the publication of The Malay Archipelago by Wallace, both in 1869, as well as the spread of the world steamship network—outside contacts increased rapidly. In 1871 there came the first European resident in the east (after Montrouzier and the other Marists at Woodlark), the now almost legendary Russian ethnologist-naturalist N. N. de Miklucho-Maclay. He was landed near Bongu on Astrolabe Bay by his country’s Vitiaz—a name now given to the deep strait between New Guinea and New Britain, first traversed by Dampier—and remained there for over a year. He returned to what is now the Rai Coast in 1876–1877, 1878, and 1883, and at other times visited Triton Bay (the former Merkusoord), Gebé, and (in 1880) the Torres Strait Islands as well as Samarai (near China Strait—the latter by then becoming a trading post taking advantage of the growth of local commerce as well as a key new shipping route established following Moresby’s surveys; see below). The Russian collected some animals, a few plants, and much ethnographic data; in addition he introduced some fruits and other plants—among them papaw (papaya), Carica papaya (banana bilong Maclay). Many of his specimens and data were lost, though some insects were described by Sir William J. Macleay in Sydney. His New Guinea Diaries (1975, translated and edited by C. L. Sentinella) and Travels to New Guinea: diaries, letters, documents (1982, compiled by D. Tumarkin) along with two biographies (Who travels alone (1944) by F. S. Greenop and The Moon Man (1984) by E. M. Webster) cover his travels and in particular give an interesting picture of the untouched north coast more than a century and a quarter ago. Also in 1871, the London Missionary Society made its first landings in the region, Samuel Macfarlane (later senior missionary) and A. W. Murray reaching the Torres Strait Islands and other points along the south coast. Later, from bases at Cape York and (after 1877) at Maer (Murray) Island in the Strait, the mission under Macfarlane—with the aid of a small ship, the Ellengowan—would establish a number of stations over a wide area. These included, as already indicated, a station at Port Moresby, and, in 1877, one at South Cape (Suau). This gave him many opportunities for exploration, yielding some collections (plants, Melbourne); he also sailed with d’Albertis and Macleay (see below).

In the west, the appearance of outside powers in the waters of the Archipelago now spurred the Dutch Indian authorities into some action with respect to their lands, including New Guinea; the tempo dulu of the past was about to recede. In August 1871 the steamer Dassoon (under Capt. A. Smits) with the smaller Wilhelmina Frederika and with two Tidorean chiefs (brothers of the Sultan, who retained some residual rights), P. van der Crab on behalf of the Indies government, and, as botanist, J. E. Teysmann (from Bogor, now acting as an agent for the new director of the Botanic Garden, R. H. C. C. Scheffer), sailed from Ternate. Over some three months they called at several points in Papua, reaching east to Humboldt Bay (and also for a distance east of 141, the then-nominal border). Considerable plant collections were made (Bogor, Melbourne, Leiden). They were written up in 1876 by Scheffer—part of the Garden’s first steps towards an independent scientific existence. Of other biota there was obtained but little—a disappointment, if less deathly than for the Triton and Iris in 1828.

The fame of Wallace and his book—and even more the fabled birds of paradise, whose feathers were now becoming seriously fashionable—now brought a stream of other visitors, including many naturalists. A. A. Bruijn (from Ternate) collected in 1871–1879, partly for the plume trade (birds, Tring/AMNH and BMNH). In 1872–1873 the Italians Odoardo Beccari (an all-round botanist and later a famous palm specialist) and Luigi M. d’Albertis came to Doré Bay, from there climbing into the Arfak Mountains as far as the Hatam district—Beccari there obtaining the first botanical collections from anywhere in the mountains of New Guinea, as well as insects and other zoological materials (Florence, Genoa; d’Albertis had trained at Genoa’s Museo Civico di Storia Naturale under its head curator, Giacomo Doria). Ramoi (south of Sorong), Mt Epa, Andai, and some of the Raja Ampat Islands were also visited (as well as, in 1873, the Aru group). Almost at the same time, there came to the northwest A. B. Meyer from Dresden, specializing in zoology and ethnography; but his extensive itinerary and localities were at least partially falsified or fictitious. In 1874 the great Challenger oceanographic expedition (of 1872–1876) sailed for the first time into New Guinea waters, voyaging westwards via the Torres Strait Islands and visiting, in September, the Aru (and Kai) Islands with H. N. Moseley there making plant and animal collections (Kew, BMNH); the next year the ship would sail along the north coast and visit the Admiralty Islands (see below).

In 1875–1876 Beccari returned to the Vogelkop Peninsula, but this time on his own; during a long stay—which included another ascent into the Arfaks—he also visited Yapen and Biak as well as most of the main Raja Ampat Islands (Misool, Batanta, Salawati, Kofiau, and Waigeo, some for