Gerald H Fisher said: "Suggest that tons of conservation money go to protecting the Foja mountain area of New Guinea. No specific mention of orchids but they have to be there and won't be for too long now that the word is out"
Gerald, you shouldn't believe everything the media tells you. In their reports on the recent expedition to the Foja Mountains, the various branches of Western media took a media-pack (a handout prepared by the expedition) and added a good dose of hype and fantasy in order to sell it to their readers. That stuff about animals being so tame they won't run away from humans .... of course it was true. The point is that the expedition knew it would be like that before they went there, because they'd read accounts of Jared Diamond's 1974 survey expedition. The Foja Mountains are underexplored, but to describe them as unexplored is nonsense. Diamond's survey results can be found in: Diamond, Jared M., 1981. "Surveys of Proposed Reserves in the Foja Mountains and Fakfak Mountains, Irian Jaya, Indonesia WWF-IP, Indonesia." A briefer reference is: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/flannery-leg.html The Diamond expedition came back with lots of specimens, including many species of orchid. Much of the mountainous spine of Irian Jaya (Papua) is still in the pristine condition described so lavishly by both the recent expedition & Diamond. Long may it stay that way. Peter O'Byrne. _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
