ALTERNATIVE LANDSCAPE UTILIZATION AT THE BIRD’S HEAD PENINSULA OF PAPUA: RESOURCE EXTRACTION VS ECOTOURISM

Abstract

Indonesia New Guinea (Papua and West Papua provinces) encompasses 404,600 km2 or approximately 42 million hectares (Baplan 2002) of which 80% is tropical forest. It is currently considered as an area of global priority for biodiversity conservation because, in part, of the species-rich forest environment of Australopapuan fauna, as well as of many uniquely New Guinean species (McPhee 1988).