The effects of palm oil plantations on the herpetofauna of Papua New Guinea

Oil palm plantations are among the worst drivers of deforestation in tropical rainforest regions. Large lowland areas in Melanesia have been converted to oil palm monocultures leading to steep declines in regional biodiversity. During an expedition to New Britain Island In the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea, we documented the local vertebrate species communities and investigated how local amphibian and reptile communities respond to oil palm plantations. Our results revealed that modern oil plantations are incompatible with the continued existence of all except of a handful of the native reptile and amphibian species. If the local herpetofauna is to be protected, large areas of lowland rainforest need to be kept from being turned into oil palm plantations (Anthony, Byrnes, Foufopoulos and Putnam, 2008). 

This was the first comprehensive study of the vertebrates of New Britain, a very large and biologically virtually unknown island. Working with local tribes in previously unvisited rainforests of the island, we discovered several species of frogs previously unknown to science (Foufopoulos and Brown 2004, Brown et al. 2006, Brown, Foufopoulos and Richards 2006). This work revealed the importance of the Bismarck Archipelago as an under-appreciated center of biodiversity in the Pacific Basin, and provided conservation management guidelines for the island (Foufopoulos and Richards, 2007).