Research Preserves New Guinea Forest

Instead of selling fifty hectares of rainforest to lumber companies as many of their neighbors had, the Wanang clan of Papua New Guinea had a different idea: use the plot for scientific purposes.

Under the terms of a deal between the clan and scientists, the land will be used for research on climate change in a joint venture that includes Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Center for Tropical Forest Science.

In exchange for the use of the land, some of the Wanang will receive jobs assisting with the scientific research, according to William Tootle, program manager for CTFS.

The trees will be used as “natural climate-monitoring stations.” Given that they are stationary and live for long periods of time, researchers can monitor how sensitive their growth is to environmental factors such as light, temperature, and precipitation.

The researchers also hope to document how sensitive the trees are to carbon dioxide, an exercise that has broad applications in climate change research.

In addition to the research, the deal aims to serve as a way to provide income to the clan’s members.

“They committed to maintaining their forest for the future and acting as stewards of that forest,” said George Weiblen, a professor of plant biology at the University of Minnesota who received his Ph.D from Harvard.

Locals will provide “logistical support that will be required,” Tootle said.

Many of the locals in this part of Papua New Guinea live as subsistence farmers, but some have already been working with The New Guinea Binatang Research Center, which is also involved with the project.

The program allows not only for research, Tootle said, but also for “a type of development, in some sense.”

“It’s something that can sustain their community for generations to come,” Weiblen said. “There’s a direct investment in the local people and in preserving their forests through this research opportunity.”

Apart from providing economic development for the members of the clan, the venture will be an important part of the CTFS’ work.

Researchers from the CTFS will conduct a census in which every woody plant greater than a centimeter in diameter will be marked, mapped, tagged, and identified, Weiblen said.

“The species richness is supposedly astronomical,” Tootle said, noting that Papua New Guinea is home to 5 percent of the Earth’s biodiversity despite making up only one half of 1 percent of the planet’s land area.

Tootle said that, so far, there is “nothing on the ground.” He predicted the first census would be finished in two years and that the plot is “very remote.”

The funding is being provided through a grant from the National Science Foundation obtained by Weiblen and a donation of $250,000 from Swire and Sons Ltd., according to a press release.

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