Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is composed of a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Its coastal plains rise to inland mountains. A significant portion of the country splits the island of New Guinea with Indonesia. Most of the country is used for human activities, in its majority by urban use. Papua New Guinea has high biodiversity rarity of terrestrial land vertebrates at a global scale. When analysed as single taxons, the rarity of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles is also high. The rarity of marine fish and mammals is also high. Challenges to biodiversity include rainforest loss; soil erosion; poor water quality; large-scale mining; destructive fishing practices; and coastal pollution.