Birds Head Peninsula
On the island's northwestern corner, New Guinea's bio-geographically diverse Bird's Head Peninsula (Indonesian: Kepala Burung, Dutch: Vogelkop) a.k.a. the Doberai Peninsula (Semenanjung Doberai) measures around three hundred kilometres from east to west and two hundred north to south. A brief glance at a map is enough to explain the name's origin.
The peninsula's rainforest-covered lowlands and foothills, coastal mangrove forests and montane rainforests are home to at least three hundred bird species, with at least twenty unique to ecoregions under threat from illegal logging, road construction, agricultural expansion and ranching.
Archaeological findings indicate settlement on the peninsula dating back at least 26,000 years. Most of the contemporary population lives in coastal villages, with small concentrations of subsistence farmers practising shifting cultivation in the interior.
