| GEOGRAPHY |
Papua New Guinea consists
of over 600 islands and lies in the middle
of the long chain of islands stretching
from mainland South-East Asia. It lies in
the South Pacific, 160km (100 miles) north
of Australia. The country occupies the eastern
half of the second-largest non-continental
island in the world, as well as the smaller
islands of the Bismarck Archipelago (New
Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville and Admiralty
Island), the D'Entrecasteaux Island group
and the three islands of the Louisiade Archipelago.
The main island shares a land border with
Irian Jaya, a province of Indonesia. The
mainland and larger islands are mountainous
and rugged, divided by large fertile upland
valleys. Fast-flowing rivers from the highlands
descend to the coastal plains. A line of
active volcanoes stretches along the north
coast of the mainland and continues on the
island of New Britain. To the north and
south of this central mountain range on
the main island lie vast stretches of mangrove
swamps and coastal river deltas. Volcanoes
and thermal pools are also found in the
southeast of other islands. Papua New Guinea
also offers the greatest variety of terrestrial
ecosystems in the South Pacific, including
five types of lowland rainforest, 13 types
of montane rainforest, five varieties of
palm and swamp forest and three different
mangrove forests. Two-thirds of the world's
species of orchids come from Papua New Guinea.
Birds include 38 species of the bird-of-paradise,
and the megapode and cassowary. Marsupials
and mammals include cuscus, tree kangaroos,
wallabies, bandicoots, spiny anteaters and,
in the coastal waters, the dugong. There
are between 170 and 200 species of frog
and 450 species of butterfly. |
