Teminabuan

A(iii)Site contains one or more highly restricted endemic species that are potentially threatened

There are two plant species endemic to the Teminabuan TIPA: the palm Areca mandacanii and ginger Alpinia porphyrea. This site has good examples of swamp forest and mangrove ecosystems, in addition to the limestone karst which has not been botanically surveyed and elsewhere in north-west New Guinea (for example Ayawasi) has been found to contain small-range endemic species.

Teminabuan is on the eastern coast of the Bird's Head. The varied topography and geology of the area means that there are a range of habitat types present from mangroves and swamp forests to limestone karst and sandstone ridge forest. Rivers flow from ridges to the sea ensuring the area also supports a riverine flora. This TIPA encompasses the small town of Teminabuan with a population size of 19,491 at the 2020 census. This is the administrative capital of South Sorong regency. This area includes the Nature Recreation Park of Beriat that has protected status and is monitored by BKSDA, the government conservation agency. This small protected area covers little swamp forest habitat and no mangroves.

Two plant species are endemic to the Teminabuan TIPA: Areca mandacanii (Arecaceae) and Alpinia porphyrea (Zingiberaceae).
The site is also likely to contain populations of plant species which occur further west closer to Sorong. These Sorong populations are highly threatened by the expansion of the city and forest loss via oil palm and logging in the plain surrounding the city.

The habitats occurring at the site are mangroves, swamp forest, limestone karst and sandstone ridge forest.
The site is mainly within two ecoregions: the Southern New Guinea lowland swamp forest and New Guinea mangroves, however it borders Vogelkop-Aru lowland rainforest. The underlying geology is marl, siltstone, limestone and greywacke to marine sedimentary further inland (https://portal.onegeology.org/OnegeologyGlobal/).

Oil palm plantations have been established to the east and west of the site, and forest loss due to logging is visible along roads (Global Forest Watch 2024).
The Southern New Guinea swamp forest ecoregion is predicted to lose species due to climate change irrespective of increased deforestation (Cámara-Leret et al. 2019).
The site has an endemic weevil Pachyrhychus faisali (Bollino 2023), two freshwater crayfish Cherax woworae (Pakota et al. 2023) and Cherax pulcher (Widyasari et al. 2021) and the rainbowfish Melanotaenia sembrae (10.26028/cybium/2015-392-003).

Species used by people are particularly threatened in the Southern New Guinea swamp forest ecoregion (Cámara-Leret et al. 2019). These forests support major aboveground carbon stocks and blue carbon stocks in the mangroves.

Liam Trethowan, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Laura Jennings, Royal Botanic Garden Kew