Introduction

Papua New Guinea has some of the most spectacular and valuable karst and caves in the world. Much of this is in extreme terrain that presents a remarkable challenge to exploration and research. At the same time, each area has its own special character, so, taken as a whole, it also has a great diversity of character. Thus, we have chosen the term sublime as encapsulating the sight of the remarkable and spectacular landscapes and the frightening difficulty of access. Few sublime1 landscapes anywhere else in the world equal those of Papua New Guinea . The concept of the sublime, as developed by Burke, recognises the affinity between beauty and spectacular, even terrifying, scenery. He saw both of these as part of the aesthetic world, and we use the term sublime in that sense.

At the same time, much of this wonderful landscape is under threat, especially from the expanding timber industry. Governmental officials have been pressured, bribed, or ignored so that the protective legislation may be by-passed. Forests have been destroyed without proper consideration of the long-term impacts upon the total ecology, and mountains once clad with magnificent trees are now reduced to unproductive residual soils or even virtually bare and unproductive rock.

Of course, this has not passed un-noticed and a number of international Non-Governmental Organisations are working in a number of the areas concerned with a view to ensuring long-term protection. Our objectives are to work with these organisations and complement their work through our own expertise in karst studies. Essentially, we are concerned to see that the major karst areas gain recognition and protection at local, provincial, national and international levels, either in their own right, or within the broader recognition of biodiversity, geodiversity and cultural values. We emphasize that protection of natural resources will, in the long run, be of far greater economic value to New Britain than any amount of extractive industries such as forestry.

This document summarises a series of proposals for action to give due recognition and protection to some of the most important areas. We propose that a forthcoming expedition to one of the key areas concerned - Nakanai - will be used as an icon and flagship to help establish a new protected area in New Britain Province. We trust this will lead to its recognition as a World Heritage site. We will seek to gain similar recognition in other provinces, and eventually, to gain recognition by the national government of the importance and common character of all the karst sites, and put them side-by-side with Nakanai in a World Heritage Cluster site.