Cross-border trade in Saratoga fingerlings from the Bensbach River, south-west Papua New Guinea

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrick Hitchcock

Saratoga Scleropages jardinii (Saville-Kent 1892) is a popular aquarium and sportsfish native to southern New Guinea and northern Australia. In recent years the people of the Bensbach River area in Papua New Guinea's Western Province have been harvesting wild fingerlings for sale across the nearby international border in Indonesia's Papua Province. From there the fish are sold to dealers in other parts of Asia. The species is protected by law in Indonesia, and subject to various regulations in Australia. In Papua New Guinea there are no controls on its exploitation. Uncontrolled harvesting of fingerlings from the Bensbach and other river systems in south New Guinea has had negative impacts on local fisheries, and led to a decline in the Australian export trade in wild-caught and farm-bred Saratoga.

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4991 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-168
Author(s):  
MING KAI TAN ◽  
SIGFRID INGRISCH ◽  
CAHYO RAHMADI ◽  
TONY ROBILLARD

Heminicsara Karny, 1912 is a katydid genus of Agraeciini from the Axylus genus group. It currently comprises 62 species from mainly New Guinea and surrounding archipelagos. Based on recent fieldwork in Lobo in West Papua, Indonesia, a new species of Heminicsara is described here: Heminicsara incrassata sp. nov. It is most readily characterised from congeners and other species of the Axylus genus group by the male tenth abdominal tergite forming a large shield-shaped plate. This represents the first species of Heminicsara described and known from the south-west of New Guinea.  


2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Georges ◽  
Fiorenzo Guarino ◽  
Biatus Bito

The Chelidae is a family of side-necked turtles restricted in distribution to South America and Australasia. While their biology in Australia is reasonably well known, species in New Guinea are very poorly known despite high diversity, especially in the southern lowlands. In this paper, we report on the diversity, distribution, habitat and reproductive biology of the freshwater turtles of the TransFly region of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, with special emphasis on reproduction of Emydura subglobosa, Elseya branderhorsti and Elseya novaeguineae. Seven species were captured, with reliable records of an eighth. A key to the freshwater turtles of the TransFly region is provided. Harvest methods, consumption, and trade in turtles by the TransFly communities are documented. There is mounting pressure to take advantage of revenue opportunities afforded by the Asian turtle trade, but this is impeded by lack of transport infrastructure. There is also insufficient demographic information on any New Guinean turtle species to make a reasoned judgment on the level of harvest that would be sustainable. Nor is there sufficient information on captive rearing for most species, and where it is available it is not accessible by local villagers. These knowledge gaps need to be addressed and factored into a management plan that is implemented before local communities can capitalise on the commercial opportunities provided by the turtle fauna without risking collapse of the resource and the implications for their concurrent subsistence economy that would follow.


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Ceridwen Spark

In this article, I discuss two recent examples of women’s filmmaking in Melanesia. The documentaries are Tanah Mama (2014), focused on West Papua and Café Niugini (2015), set in Papua New Guinea. Both films explore and represent food in profoundly different ways. Here, I consider their respective depictions of food, demonstrating that Tanah Mama represents food as sustenance while Café Niugini renders food as ‘cuisine’ through the ‘creative performance’ of cookery. Nevertheless, and as I argue, both documentaries reflect the filmmakers’ interest in representing issues associated with food in the Pacific, including the importance of Indigenous access to land, population management, gender roles and the impact of changing cultural values on food consumption and health.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-35
Author(s):  
Peter Cronau

  Mercenaries expelled from Papua New Guinea in 1997 had worked a year earlier in West Papua assisting Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces troops in an operation that caused many civilian deaths. 


1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Mervyn McLean ◽  
Wolfgang Laade ◽  
Artur Simon ◽  
Ekkehart Royal ◽  
Volker Heeschen ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Diefenbach-Elstob ◽  
Vanina Guernier ◽  
Graham Burgess ◽  
Daniel Pelowa ◽  
Robert Dowi ◽  
...  

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a high burden of tuberculosis (TB), including drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). DR-TB has been identified in patients in Western Province, although there has been limited study outside the provincial capital of Daru. This study focuses on the Balimo region of Western Province, aiming to identify the proportion of DR-TB, and characterise Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) drug resistance-associated gene mutations. Sputum samples were investigated for MTB infection using published molecular methods. DNA from MTB-positive samples was amplified and sequenced, targeting the rpoB and katG genes to identify mutations associated with rifampicin and isoniazid resistance respectively. A total of 240 sputum samples were collected at Balimo District Hospital (BDH). Of these, 86 were classified as positive based on the results of the molecular assays. For samples where rpoB sequencing was successful, 10.0% (5/50, 95% CI 4.4–21.4%) were considered rifampicin-resistant through detection of drug resistance-associated mutations. We have identified high rates of presumptive DR-TB in the Balimo region of Western Province, PNG. These results emphasise the importance of further surveillance, and strengthening of diagnostic and treatment services at BDH and throughout Western Province, to facilitate detection and treatment of DR-TB, and limit transmission in this setting.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Glazebrook

In this paper I explore two related questions: how does a particular site come to be perceived as sacred, and what is the impact of the destruction of something sacred when it occurs in a place of ‘refuge’? This study is situated on the island of New Guinea, in the experiences of West Papuan people from the Indonesian Province of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), living as refugees across the international border in Papua New Guinea. The inquiry is grounded in two instances involving a refugee population in a place of refuge. The first instance involves the burning of a church built by a refugee congregation, and the second involves the large-scale occupation by a refugee population of another people’s land. A doubling effect is intended here. Forced migration can simultaneously render refugees vulnerable to the violence of others, and in the process of resettlement, refugees may have no real choice but to engage in actions that violate the land of others.


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