This is part travelogue and part natural history. The author, Antwerp Edgar Pratt (1852 - 1924) was a Victorian biologist, collector and explorer, born on the Isle of Wight. The book gives a vivid account of his journey to and residence in New Guinea. According to the author, the intent was not to write a purely scientific or historical account, but to interest readers of all kinds.
This book aims to present a reality view for Papua New Guinea based on many years of first-hand field work and research accounts. It further assesses sustainability in the light of 47,000 years of a self-sustained type of civilization without bad global impacts. This book contrasts the modern sustainable development failures from the colonial times onwards, as promoted by the ‘western world’, namely Australia, the UK, EU and the U.S as well as Japan and now, China, in times of globalization, Trump’ism and royal governance (Papua New Guinea is still part of the British Dominion and of the Antarctic Treaty etc). This assessment and book is the first of its kind also employing modern data analysis, Landscape Ecology principles (patterns and processes, telecoupling) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Open Access data focusing on ecological economics, marxism, socialism and contrasting it with current capitalism and neoliberalism that Papua New Guinea is fully exposed to. Throughout the 31 book chapters various aspects are covered how a further insistence on the ‘new’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and so-called Development Aid will result in unwanted side effects and perverse outcomes for Papua New Guinea and for the world in times of wider ‘global change’ and unprecedented man-made crisis.
Results of scientific expeditions to New Guinea in 1903, 1907, 1909, 1912, 1913, 1926, undertaken for the Maatschappij ter Bevordering van het Natuurkundig Onderzoek der Nederlandsche Koloniën.
