Bio-Diversity Inventory: Kamiali Wildlife Management Area

Abstract

In 1997–1998, a team of scientists lead by the author conducted a biodiversity Inventory of the Kamiali Wild Life Management Area (KWMA), 60 km southeast from Lae, Papua New Guinea along the Huon Gulf coast. The 434square-kilometer area was registered with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government as a wildlife management area in 1996 (Figure 45.1). The village of 500 people chose a committee to work with The Village Development Trust, a nationally based non-government organization to help manage the area that extends 12 km out to sea and 17 km inland. The high relief environment ranges from 1,080 m below sea level up to 2,012 m above mean sea level. A transect method was used to sample biomes beginning with open sea, coral reef, mangrove, beach, village, sago swamp, garden, riparian environments, tropical forest, and cloud forest. This unique high biomass environment serves as a habitat for many rare species but faces potential threats of: (1) commercial clear-cut logging and (2) population-pressure induced hillside gardening and over fishing of reefs. This biodiversity inventory establishes a baseline from which to employ conservation efforts to maintain its uniqueness in rural Papua New Guinea.