Papua New Guinea - Geography

The Independent State of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific shares a land-border with Indonesia; its other near neighbours are Australia to the south and Solomon Islands to the east.

Papua New Guinea comprises the eastern half of the world’s second biggest island, New Guinea, bordering the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya to the west. The rest of the country is made up of about 600 small islands, the chief of which are the Bismarck Archipelago, the Trobriands, the Louisiade Archipelago, the D’Entrecasteaux Islands, and some of the islands in the Solomons group, including Bougainville.

Area: 462,840 sq km

Main towns: Port Moresby (capital, pop. 289,900 in 2006), Lae (Morobe, 75,600), Arawa (on Bougainville, 40,300), Mount Hagen (Western Highlands, 34,900), Popondetta (Oro, 30,400), Mendi (Southern Highlands, 28,600), Kokopo (on New Britain, 27,700), Madang (Madang, 27,300), Kimbe (on New Britain, 19,800), Goroka (Eastern Highlands, 18,400), Wewak (East Sepik, 17,900), Bulolo (Morobe, 16,800), Wau (Morobe, 15,800), Daru (Fly river, 15,700), Kavieng (on New Ireland, 15,100), Vanimo (Sandaun, 11,500), Rabaul (on New Britain, 7,800).

Topography: The centre of the main island is a rugged mountainous ridge, with several wide valleys, and foothills north and south. The rivers Sepik and Ramu drain the foothills to the north, and the rivers Fly, Kikori and Purari those in the south. Though fast-flowing, many rivers are navigable. There are active volcanoes along the north coast, and some volcanoes and warm pools in the south-east islands.

Climate: Tropical monsoon type, hot and humid all year, though somewhat cooler in the highlands. Rainfall is chiefly from December to March. High mountains receive occasional frost, even snow.

Environment: The most significant environmental issues are rainforest deforestation as a result of growing commercial demand for tropical timber; pollution from mining projects; and severe drought.

Vegetation: Rich and very varied: five kinds of lowland, and 13 kinds of mountain rainforest, five kinds of palm and swamp forests, three differing mangrove forests, and the world’s greatest variety of orchid species. Forest covers 65% of the land area, having declined at 0.4% p.a. 1990–2005. Arable land comprises 0.5% and permanent cropland 1.4% of the total land area.

Wildlife: There are no large mammals but a rich variety of marsupials, reptiles and some 700 species of birds, including 38 species of the spectacular bird of paradise and related bower-birds. Papua New Guinea also has many thousands of unusual species of insect including the world’s largest butterfly, the Queen Alexandra birdwing, and brilliant green scarab beetles which are used for jewellery. Indigenous marsupials include tree kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, cuscus and spiny anteaters. Dugong live in the waters near the coast. The creation of national parks was a slow process, the government being reluctant to interfere with traditional methods of land tenure, but there are now four national parks, and protection measures have been introduced, banning the export of birds of paradise.

Transport: Construction of roads is hampered by the rugged mountainous environment and the total national road network extends to 19,600km, 3.5% paved. Port Moresby is perhaps the only capital city that is not linked by road with the rest of the country.

Principal ports are Alotau (on the southern tip of New Guinea), Port Moresby (on the south coast), and Lae, Madang and Wewak (on the north coast), Rabaul (in New Britain), Kieta (Bougainville) and Momote (Manus Island). As there are relatively few roads, river transport is important, for both freight and passengers, and particularly on the River Sepik.

The international airport is Port Moresby at Jackson Field, 11km from the city. Domestic air services run to all centres of population and industry.