Using indigenous knowledge for wildlands conservation in Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea contains the largest unexplored tracts of forest in the South Pacific. While both the international community of environmentalists and the government of Papua New Guinea recognize the importance of conserving these forests, neither has the resources needed to study them thoroughly. No roads have been cut through the forest in this region, and no bridges span the Laigaip, Om or Strickland Rivers in the Hewa territory. Although an airstrip was built in 1992, the continuing isolation of the Hewa offers an opportunity for exploring the relationship between traditional lifestyles and wildlands conservation in New Guinea. Research has concentrated on indigenous knowledge of birds because they are the best known of New Guinea's fauna.
Birds are the primary agents of seed dispersal in New Guinea's forests.
Human activity alters the forest and therefore impacts directly upon avian diversity, forest regeneration and the conservation of biodiversity. Both western ornithologists and the Hewa associate some species exclusively with the primary forest, and others with forests that have undergone at least 20 years of regeneration. Up to now 128 Hewa categories of birds have been recorded. They correspond to 171 species. According to the Hewa, cutting forest will eliminate 56 species of birds, roughly 33 per cent of the species found here.