Papua New Guinea has huge potential for research

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA is blessed. Its natural resources are full of surprises and have a huge potential for research.
PNG UNRE Alumni Jacob Yomba, who graduated with a Bachelor in Tropical Agriculture in March 2016, said this in a presentation on campus last Sunday evening.
He said Papua New Guinea has made and is still making history with the discovery of many new plant and animal species because of its extremely high biodiversity.
The country is home to the world’s smallest known vertebrate; the world’s largest butterfly; the world’s very few toxic birds; and many more.
Mr Yomba is employed by New Guinea Binatang Research Centre (NGBRC), a non-profit organisation involved with biological research and conservation in PNG.
He was in East New Britain on duty travel and visited UNRE to give a talk about what he does at NGBRC to motivate students and also network with them.
Established in 1975, NGBRC is advancing biodiversity research in PNG. It trains Papua New Guineans in biology at all levels - from field technicians through para ecologists to postgraduate students; and develops educational and nature conservation programmes that target grassroots audiences. 
It is also involved in the study of insects which Mr Yomba says is a challenging task.
He said there is a global estimate of Insect Species Diversity at 6.1 million species.
Mr Yomba’s colleague, Dr Milan Zanda, spoke at the presentation about his study on ants which began 18 years ago
Dr Zanda said ants are the most abundant and ecologically dominant insects of tropical forest ecosystems and have diversity patterns representative to other arthropod groups.
They have a large range of ecological roles (scavengers, herbivores, predators, mutualists). He said ants are important to the ecosystems and influence many other organisms around them.
Dr Zanda has covered most of the mainland areas and is now moving to the New Guinea Islands to identify how many species of ants there are in each province.
The NGBRC team is now in New Ireland and will travel back to East New Britain in two weeks’ time.

Dr Milan Zanda and Mr Jacob Yomba (front row) at the presentation last Sunday.

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