Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
Papua.
In 1966, plants (Bogor) were collected by W. Soegeng Reksodihardjo (then at Bogor) with Kostermans around Sukarnopura (formerly Hollandia, now Jayapura) and its environs (including Abepura), Lake Sentani, the Cyclops foothills (including Deplanchea glabra) and in the Baliem Valley (including Wamena and Wellesey, ascending to 2,500 m); a visit was also made to Biak Island before return to Java. In 1967 Soegeng, together with the Bogor official (mantri) Nedi, returned to New Guinea as his country’s botanical representative to the Indonesian-Australian border survey party. They collected (Bogor) from April to June at different localities from the foothills of the Star Mountains south to the coast: Ok Walimkan River (Papua), Ingembit (on border), Yat, Angarmaruk, and Weam (PNG), and Bensbach (Papua). In 1968–1970 a Japanese expedition under Y. Kobayashi investigated lower plants in the Wamena area of the Baliem Valley and elsewhere (Tokyo). Vink (see above) made a short return visit in 1968, adding a few more BW-numbers from the Warsamson Valley and elsewhere.
Following the plebiscite, the Act of Free Choice (Pepera: Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat) of 1969 with its ostensible confirmation of Indonesian sovereignty, came a renewal of visits from European, American, and Australasian scientists; but at least through the 1970s their botanical work was generally undertaken in association with interdisciplinary undertakings (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above). The Australian Universities’ Expeditions of 1971–1973 obtained a fair number of plants, mostly from G. S. Hope and J. A. Patterson (CANB). These teams were soon followed by J. Raynal, a member of the Leopold III expedition from Belgium (see also the Integrated Expeditions section, above). Raynal collected during 1972–1973 in the Baliem Valley and near Mt Jaya (Bogor, Brussels, Paris, Leiden). (This undertaking later inspired the creation of the Belgian research station on Laing Island; see the Integrated Expeditions section, above.) In 1976 P. Hiepko, W. Schultze-Motel, and W. Schiefenhovel (the latter concerned with medicinal plants) were in the Eipomek Valley (see the Integrated Expeditions section, above).
In the 1980s E. Widjaja visited Tembagapura and vicinity, below Mt Jaya. Later she collected in the Vogelkop Peninsula. Also in that decade came the flora and vegetation studies undertaken by J.-M. Mangen in the Jayawijaya Mountains and in particular near Mt Trikora (formerly Mt Wilhelmina). Over three sorties (via the Baliem Valley—three days’ walk to the northeast of his study areas) in 1982– 1984 Mangen carried out extensive topographical, floristic, and vegetation studies (reported upon in French in 1986 and in English in 1993; collections in Luxembourg). It was a continuation, in more detail, of Brass’s 1938–1939 work. Later, Mangen made an expedition to the Valentijn Mountains—a range not otherwise botanically examined, but partly continuous with high mountains near the Yali lands (see below).
A different kind of expedition was that made by William Milliken (with Sertu Very Bakaru) in September–October 1992 to the Yali area (northeast of the Baliem Valley and west of the Eipomek Valley). The object was ethnobotanical documentation, and a considerable number of vouchers were obtained (Kew). The work formed part of the International Scientific Support Trust’s "Expedition to West Papua 1992," and a report was circulated.
Soon after in the 1990s came two considerable undertakings, the first at various points in the Vogelkop Peninsula (1994–1995) with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in the United States, the second (1998–2000, locally supported by Freeport McMoRan) in the main ranges along the access road to Tembagapura and at points beyond, including the alpine areas. For both expeditions the major metropolitan participant was the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; scientists from Bogor, Manokwari, and Tembagapura also took part. From the work of 1994–1995, some 2,000 collections were made. These collections have not been worked up into a definitive synthetic work (and no plans for one exist) although some background works of limited circulation and interim lists have appeared, including Checklist of the Flowering Plants of N.E. Kepala Burung (Vogel-kop), Irian Jaya (1997)—the first synthesis, albeit avowedly provisional, for any part of the Vogelkop Peninsula. The 1998–2000 field campaigns yielded the largest new collections from the Mt Jaya region, exceeding all before. A considerable portion of these new collections (along with, where relevant, earlier records—particularly those of Boden Kloss in 1912–1913) have been a primary basis for a florula, The Alpine and Subalpine Flora of Mount Jaya—covering areas over 3,000 m with a small, somewhat lower area near Tembagapura featuring a subalpine facies.
More recently, Kew botanists have collaborated with those at MAN, Lae, and elsewhere in work towards an account of New Guinea palms; in connection with this W. R. Baker visited at points in the Vogelkop and Wandammen Peninsulas. D. Hicks was for periods of time based at MAN as part of a U.K. Darwin Initiative assistance program. Other work has, for logistical, security, and other reasons, been to a considerable extent associated with integrated area surveys (see Integrated Expeditions section, above).
FAUNA OF WESTERN NEW GUINEA AND
ASSOCIATED ISLANDS (SINCE 1945)
Nieuw Guinea, Residency of Netherlands East Indies (1945–1949);
Netherlands New Guinea (1949–1962); UNTEA (1962–1963)
As in botany, there were a few zoologists who returned to the field in western New Guinea before its separation from the new state of Indonesia. Most notable were S. Bergman and M. A. Lieftinck (see above) in 1948–1949, active in Raja Ampat, Sorong, and the eastern side of the Vogelkop Peninsula. But in the 1950s as civil developments proceeded and western New Guinea entered its last period of relative stability, more sustained field activity got under way. In particular, with economic and human development, entomology came more to the fore than in the past, moving beyond a concern primarily with Coleoptera and the showier Lepidoptera.
In 1952, L. D. Brongersma (with W. J. Roosdorp) collected animals in the north, in the Vogelkop Peninsula and at Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes and Merauke (Leiden). In that same year Bergman returned (remaining until 1953) with a further visit in 1958, this last inclusive of the Swart Valley (collections, Stockholm); he also published popular works covering these travels as well as on that of 1948– 1949. In 1954 L. van der Hammen collected Acarina (ticks and mites) etc. in the Vogelkop Peninsula, on Geelvink Bay, the Wissel Lakes, and in the vicinity of Hollandia (now Jayapura; including Lake Sentani). In 1954–1955 Brongersma (with M. Boeseman and L. B. Holthuis) again collected animals (Leiden), taking in many localities in the Vogelkop Peninsula, on the islands in Geelvink (now Cenderawasih) Bay (Yapen, Biak), and along the Digul River. Brongersma also collected animals, with M. Boeseman and L. B. Holthuis, at many localities in the Vogelkop Peninsula, along the Digul River, and on Biak, Yapen, and elsewhere. In 1959 Brongersma returned to lead the scientific team under the Star Mountains expedition (see Integrated Expeditions section, above). In 1960–1961 S. Dillon Ripley (with his wife) came once more to western New Guinea, collecting birds on the northern slopes of the Snow Mountains (Yale).
The 1950s also saw the beginnings of several years of entomological surveys by the Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawai’i, U.S.) under the direction of the present writer’s previous co-author, the late J. L. Gressitt (collections therein). In 1955 Gressitt (largely in company with R. T. Simon Thomas, then recently arrived as a government agricultural entomologist, working out of Manokwari) collected insects for a month—mainly in the Wissel Lakes area (including Kamo Valley) but also at Hollandia (now Jayapura), Sentani, the Cyclops Mountains, and Biak Island. In 1957 Gressitt revisited the Cyclops and Biak; in 1958 he spent three weeks in the Swart Valley (Nassau Range)—visited by Lam in 1920—and areas to the west. In 1959 he collected with T. C. Maa in the Cyclops, on Biak Island, and at Fakfak (including caves) and inland on the Bomberai Peninsula. In 1962 he collected in the Cyclops Mts, Biak, Nabire, and Wissel Lakes (partly in company with J. Sedlacek, N. Wilson, and H. C. Clissold). Afterwards Gressitt would become more involved with Papua New Guinea (where from 1961 he had established for the Museum a field station at Wau, which is now the Wau Ecology Institute). Gressitt did, however, make two final trips (1977 and 1979) to Papua, mainly to establish contacts at the Abepura (outside Jayapura) and Manokwari campuses of Cenderawasih University, but also visiting Biak, Sorong, and the Arfak Mountains.
As an associate in Gressitt’s program—but separately—D. E. Hardy in 1957 collected at Manokwari, Anggi Lakes, and elsewhere on the Vogelkop, and Sentani and Hollandia (now Jayapura). In 1959 Maa collected at Waris, Sarmi, Holmafin, the Baliem Valley