had to leave the FRI in 1992 and since has worked privately. Other local assistants were associated with UPNG.
Ecological and Paleoecological Investigations
The vegetation history and pollen analysis studies carried out from 1960 until the late 1970s under the direction of Professor Donald Walker (ANU) involved substantial fieldwork. Early studies were largely carried out in Western Highlands and Enga provinces. In 1965 Walker established the Mt Wilhelm research laboratory at Pindaunde (3,300 m) with help from Bishop Museum and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) administration. Much research was done here on vegetation, palynology, and climate. In 1974, the station was ceded to the National Parks Board.
Some specific studies include: 1965, Walker and J. R. Flenley on pollen deposits in Enga Province (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 1); 1966, Jocelyn Wheeler Powell on Eastern Highlands deposits (Gressitt 1982: chapter II, 4); 1966–1967, intensive studies on Mt Wilhelm by D. McVean and L. K. Wade; 1968, Walker, B. O. van Zanten, W. A. Weber (Colorado), McVean, and Johns (prior to his Government and PNGUT service) on vegetation studies including the cryptogamic flora at Mt Wilhelm; 1968–1969, G. S. and Jeannette Hope on vegetation history and animal ecology at Mt Wilhelm, G. S. also working at Mt Giluwe and later in the Owen Stanley Mts (as well as at Mt Jaya; see sections above on Integrated Expeditions and Flora of Western New Guinea); and 1972, J. A. Peterson (see also the just-mentioned sections) on glacial history, and J. M. B. Smith on alpine plant ecology at Mt Wilhelm and on the Kubor Range (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 2). In 1976 S. Garrett-Jones worked at Lake Wanum (near Lae; "inland" mangal remnants are known in the vicinity). In 1977 planned fieldwork at Lake Trist (east of Wau) was aborted, but some studies were carried out at Lake Kutubu and a small lake near Mt Ialibu.
Other vegetation studies include those by R. Hynes, J. Ash (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 5) and N. Clunie on Nothofagus (Clunie also on New Britain); N. Enright on Araucaria (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 6), P. C. Heyligers in the Port Moresby region, 1963–1967 (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 8); K. Paijmans on Mt Albert Edward in 1970 and in Galley Reach in 1975; and P. Edwards and P. J. Grubb near Mt Kerigomna above Marafunga in 1970–1971. For some twenty years from 1970, Johns, while at Bulolo and Lae, sampled numerous vegetation plots (references in P.N.G. Conservation Needs Assessment, 2: 55–60. 1993).
The 1980s and Beyond
After the mid-1980s, with changing interests, increasing financial stringency (and irregularities), "privatizations," a decrease in the quality of life (including security) in many more closely settled areas (including the cities and towns), more regulations, and—notably—an insecure central government, collecting declined notably. Only a few people have done anything substantial, notably W. Takeuchi in many areas under varying sponsorship since the late 1980s, and the present writer (with G. Morren, Rutgers University) in 1992 and 1993 in the Telefomin District, this latter undertaking with particular reference to uses and local ecology among the Miyanmin—an area not otherwise sampled (Kew, Lae). In 1992, with E. Gabir, Frodin and Morren reached some Miyanmin lowland areas along the Iwa (also known as May) River (Fiak Airstrip and Hotmin—the latter ca 10 km or so south of the furthest point reached by the Behrmann expedition). There have also been a number of more targeted field undertakings, including (as already mentioned) those for palms and, as of late 2005, for orchids (E. de Vogel, pers. comm.).
Government activity has now dropped to relatively low levels. Takeuchi has indicated that since 1989 additions in the NGF/LAE institutional numbering sequence have averaged only some 400 numbers/year—well below earlier rates, particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s. This reflects significant staff cuts since the 1970s; the focus is presently on maintenance of existing resources.
The alpine flora was gathered together in an impressive series of volumes (1980–1983) by P. van Royen, following upon his 1976 expedition. This must, however, be but a starting point for further research on this fragile ecosystem; probably only at Mt Wilhelm (and Mt Jaya) has collecting reached a relatively advanced level—almost everywhere else visits have been at scattered times. The Mt Victoria complex, for example—although the first to be visited (in 1889)—has only rarely been studied since (e.g., in 1976; see above).
At lesser elevations, knowledge remains patchy. Effective inventory of any given area will come about only with repeated, relatively sustained visitc and where conditions (including local relations) are favorable, and most likely with outside or nongovernmental organization (NGO) support. A fair idea of our present knowledge may be had from the various recent conservation needs assessments (see References section, below). Formal documentation is, however, likely to remain a slow process (and to many recondite in language and style) without radically different approaches.
FAUNA OF EASTERN NEW GUINEA: TERRITORY OF PAPUA AND
NEW GUINEA (TPNG)(1946-1971); PAPUA NEW GUINEA,
INDEPENDENT FROM 1975 (SINCE 1971)
In contrast to the plant world over much of this period, there was no single government body—nor perhaps could there have been—responsible for fauna, there being many different stakeholders. As a result, a number of separate official collections came into being, some of them before re-establishment (in 1954) of the old Papuan territorial museum as the National Museum. Even afterwards the Museum’s primary focus in research was on ethnography and archeology, although gradually a zoological collection, predominately of higher vertebrates, was built up. Of agency collections, DASF (later DPI) accumulated important holdings of fish (and other aquatic organisms) as well as insects, while the Department of Forests developed a collection of forest insects at Bulolo (later moved to Lae). Collections were also built up at Wau Ecology Institute (see below) and the universities (particularly the University of Papua New Guinea). There is also a collection at the Parataxonomy Center in Madang.
Vertebrates
N. B. Blood collected birds in the highlands 1945–1947 and later (AM). Fred Shaw Mayer (see above) collected birds in the Mt Hagen area in 1946–1947 and on Mt Wilhelm in 1949. In 1948 Blood set up at Nondugl in the Wahgi Valley the bird of paradise (plus other wildlife) sanctuary partly funded by Sir Edward Hallstrom. Its management was passed in 1954 to Shaw Meyer and in 1960 to M. J. Tyler (see below), In the early 1960s it was turned over to the government and moved to suitable forested land by the Baiyer River, also in the Western Highlands. It is now a National Park, with as well some botanical significance. The first two managers at the new location were Graeme George and Roy Mackay.
Another government manager of this period, Angus Hutton (of the tea plantation at Garaina and previously resident in India), collected animals at Garaina and elsewhere in southeastern Morobe.
A contemporary of Blood and Shaw Mayer was E. Thomas Gilliard of AMNH, there an associate of A. L. Rand. Gilliard made several trips (1948–1959) to collect birds (AMNH): Astrolabe Range (1948), Wilhelm, Giluwe (1950), the Kubor Range (1952), the Victor Emanuel and Hindenburg ranges (1954), Mt Hagen and the Finisterres (1956), New Britain (1958–1959) including a climb into the remote Whiteman Range, and the Adelbert Range (1959). He also collected butterflies (AMNH), obtaining new species of Delias, and a few plants (Harvard). Gilliard was partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society of Washington DC, and wrote and photographed for National Geographic. Apart from formal papers, much of his work is summarized in his Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (1965) which also contains useful historical material. He was in addition a co-author (with Rand) of Handbook of New Guinea Birds (1967).
The Gyldenstolpe expedition of 1951 in the Hagen/Wahgi area concentrated on birds but also collected other animals and plants. Its principals were the Swedes Nils Gyldenstolpe and his wife (Stockholm; results in Ark. Zool. 8(1), 1955). In 1954 Ellis Troughton, assisted by Norman Camps as well as by Blood, collected mammals in the Western Highlands (AM; Australian Mus. Mag. 11: 246). Blood and Camps also assisted Gilliard and Gressitt. In 1955 Rev. O. Shelly collected some frogs in the Wahgi Valley (AMNH). In 1959 Reimer collected some animals
