We have just published three books on the Trees of Papua New Guinea. These three volumes document the major trees found in the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea lies to the north of Australia and to the east of Indonesia. The island of New Guinea is a region that has a high
diversity of species and a high level of endemism, containing more than 5% of earth’s biodiversity in just over one half of a percent of the land on the earth (Mack 1998). It is a region that is rich in biodiversity, geomorphology, peoples, languages, history, traditions and culture (Gressitt 1982).

My co-author Kipiro Damas and I (Barry Conn) initiated this 16 years project to document the trees of PNG so that scientists, botanists, foresters, agronomists, conservationists and environmental managers would have sufficient information to help them identify the trees of these magnificent forests.

This blog will summarize the highlights of our adventures in Papua New Guinea, our field studies and back-stories to the publication of these books.