Foja Mountains
The Foja Mountains are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to, and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the interior part of the range. The Foja forest tract covers 9,712 square kilometers and is the largest tropical forest without roads in the Asia Pacific region.
The Foja Range languages are spoken within the mountain range and nearby areas.
Geography
The Foja Mountains are cooler than the lowlands below because of their elevation, but January and July temperatures still average. The rainy season is from December to March, but the area can receive rain throughout the year. In a typical year, the range receives more than of precipitation. Relative humidity ranges from 73 to 87%. The nearest villages include Sragafareh, Jomen, Beggensabah, Aer Mati, and Dabra.History
The mountains have no record of visitors prior to 1979. Much of the area around the Foja Mountains and nearby Van Rees Mountains are too steep for conventional logging, and are considered unsafe due to their inaccessibility. Some atlases show only the Gauttier Mountains in the area, but the Foja Mountains lie at the eastern edge of that range at about 139° east longitude.Ecology
The portion of the mountains above 1000 meters elevation is in the Northern New Guinea montane rain forests ecoregion. The montane forests are dominated by Araucaria cunninghamii, Podocarpus idenburgensis, Agathis labillardierei, Calophyllum, and Palaquium at the 1,200 meter level.The mountains are within the Mamberamo-Foja Wildlife Reserve.
Ecological discovery
2005
In December 2005, scientists from the United States, Indonesia, and Australia spent a month in the Foja Range documenting flora and fauna from the lower hills to near the summit of the range. The expedition team was co-led by Bruce Beehler and Stephen Richards and included scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Cenderawasih University, the Smithsonian Institution, Conservation International and other institutions. In February 2006, the expedition team released details of new species including:- One bird, a honeyeater with scarlet wattles, officially described in 2007 as the wattled smoky honeyeater.
- 20 frogs
- Four butterflies
- Five palms
- A rhododendron with a white, scented flower across the NeverPeack Mountains
- The first photographs of Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise and the golden-fronted bowerbird, both of which were only known from a minute number of trade skins previously.
- A golden-mantled tree-kangaroo, believed to be near-extinct.
- Western long-beaked echidnas that allowed scientists to pick them up, evidence that the area has had no human presence