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From the Archives of the 1980's - Salvinia molesta entered the mighty Sepik River in Papua New Guinea in the 1970's. The communities nearby relied heavily on the Sepik River for communication, transport and food but soon the Salvinia became a menace and clogged water intakes and fouling propellers of outboard motors. However in 1979, the small black weevil which became the perfect candidate for biological control as it fed only on the Salvinia and in 1982 the weevil was released and became the solution for the Salvinia-infested waters.

The New Guinea mainland and surrounding islands possess an extra-ordinarily rich flora and a great diversity of vegetation types that parallel the diverse physiography of the lands and the resulting climates that prevail. A high proportion (some three-quarters) of the land area has a forest cover, most of it evergreen rain forest. Seasonally dry areas support distinctive and characteristic vegetations. The large rivers have extensive flood-plains that are inundated seasonally, and, where drainage is impeded for long periods, vast swamplands occur. Above the treeline on the highest mountains com- munities of dwarfed herbs extend to the wind-battered and occasionally snow-covered peaks.