Papua New Guinea - Trans-Fly Complex

Mixed Cultural/Natural Property The property is a mixed cultural and natural site straddling the international border of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This low-lying region of savannas, wetlands and monsoon forest habitats covers more than 10 million ha. The area is home to some of the largest and healthiest wetlands in the Asia-Pacific region. Combined with the Kakadu World heritage Site, it represents the only environment of its kind in Australasia. Millions of birds inhabit the floodplains of slow moving rivers, and the surrounding savannas and monsoon forests are unique to the Trans-Fly. The area is home to an endemic marsupial cat, flying possums and birds of paradise. Over 50% of New Guinea's total bird population is found in the ecoregion, including 80 species endemic to New Guinea. A complete range of largely intact vegetation types from coastal mangroves through savannas and tropical dry forests includes all representative types of monsoonal climate vegetation. It is suggested that this site could potentially be a serial trans-boundary nomination with 1) the existing Kakadu World Heritage Site in Australia's Northern Territory with which shares many similar environmental conditions and 2) the adjacent savannas, wetlands and monsoon forests of the Indonesian side of the border in Papua Province. The cultural links across the border with Papua, Indonesia are significant - many groups share languages and cultural traditions and many sacred sites and ancestor routes are important to groups on both sides of the border. The biological links to Kakadu are also significant, as a large percentage of the biodiversity is shared between these two sites. However, the Trans-Fly includes many New Guinea endemic species not found in Kakadu.