Papua New Guinea - Kikori River Basin / Great Papuan Plateau

The property is a mixed cultural and natural site covering over 6% of the landmass of PNG. The Kikori River Basin / Great Papuan Plateau encompasses over two million hectares. There are few landscapes in Melanesia as dramatic with features including the extinct volcano of Mt Bosavi, cockpit and needle karst of the extensive Darai limestone, remarkable Hegigio Gorge and the spectacular Wassi and Wawoi waterfalls. The Kikori basin / Great Papuan Plateau contains one of the largest remaining tracts of undisturbed forest in the Southern Hemisphere. The catchment spans across nearly all forest types found in PNG, from alpine and montane forests in the north, to increasingly rare intact lowland forests in the south, to the largest block of mangrove forest in the Pacific. The region has about half the bird species richness of the entire North American continent. Included is a rich assemblage of birds-of-paradise species as well as the world's only underground roosting bird. Many species occur nowhere else in the world. T