The Tonda Wildlife Management Area is a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

of international importance and the largest

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

.UNESCO: Trans-Fly Complex
retrieved 15 May 2010 It is located in the south-western corner of the

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

and is contiguous with Wasur National Park of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It forms part of the Trans Fly savanna and grasslands

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

Vegetation and fauna

The terrain is flat, generally less than 45 metres above sea level. It includes tidal river reaches,

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

areas, swamps, grassland, savanna woodlands and patches of monsoon forest. Most trees are of the genus ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' and ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

'' while common grasses are '' Phragmite'' and ''

Pseudoraphis ''Pseudoraphis'' is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family, commonly known as mudgrasses.Watson, L. and M. J. Dallwitz. 1992 onwards''Pseudoraphis'' Griff.The Grass Genera of the World.waterbirds A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

. Most of the World's population of little curlew stage on the plains during migration. The area also provides habitat for

birds-of-paradise The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Australia. The family has 45 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...

and

brolga The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane (bird), crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithology, ornithologist John Gou ...

. Fifty-six species of fish have been recorded. Fifty mammals are known to occur in the area, including a number not found elsewhere in New Guinea, such as the spectacled hare-wallaby, false water-rat,

bronze quoll The bronze quoll (''Dasyurus spartacus'') is a species of quoll found only in the Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands of Papua New Guinea and South Papua in Indonesia. History It was discovered in the early 1970s when five specimens were collected ...

and chestnut dunnart. Reptiles include

saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaland to northern Australia and Micronesia. It ha ...

and New Guinea crocodile.Ramsar report for Tonda Wildlife Management Area
retrieved 15 May 2010

Traditional landowners

The land is under customary ownership. About 1,500 subsistence gardeners and hunters live in the area in 12 villages. The western part of Tonda covers land of the Kanum peoples.

Conservation

Tonda

Wildlife Management Area A wildlife management area (WMA) is a protected area set aside for the conservation of wildlife and for recreational activities involving wildlife. New Zealand There are 11 wildlife management areas in New Zealand: * Horsham Downs Wildlife Ma ...

(WMA) was established in 1975. The WMA Rules restrict hunting by non-customary land owners. In 1993 it was listed as a

of international importance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

. In 1995 a Tri-National Wetlands Program was initiated by WWF between Tonda WMA, Wasur NP, and the Australian

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...

, which led to a Memorandum of Understanding between the three government conservation agencies in 2002. In 2006 it was proposed as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

, as part of the larger Trans-Fly Complex.

Cross-border issues

The WMA is the subject of poaching by people from neighbouring Papua Province, Indonesia. Local people also harvest and sell a number of wildlife resources to merchants on the other side of the border, including deer meat and antlers, candlenut, the plastra of freshwater turtles, shark fins, saratoga (''

Scleropages jardinii ''Scleropages jardinii'', the Gulf saratoga, Australian bonytongue, pearl arowana or northern saratoga, is a freshwater bony fish native to Australia and New Guinea, one of two species of fishes sometimes known as Australian arowana, the other be ...

'') fingerlings and the dried

swim bladder The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ (anatomy), organ in bony fish that functions to modulate buoyancy, and thus allowing the fish to stay at desired water depth without having to maintain lift ...

s of certain fish.Hitchcock, G. 2004
Wildlife is Our Gold: Political Ecology of the Torassi River Borderland, Southwest Papua New Guinea.
PhD Thesis, The University of Queensland

References

{{Reflist Ramsar sites in Papua New Guinea Western Province (Papua New Guinea) Protected areas established in 1975 Protected areas of Papua New Guinea

Vegetation and fauna

Traditional landowners

Conservation

Cross-border issues

See also

References