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The reptile order crocodilia contains three living families: the alligators which are found primarily in the Americans and include the genera Alligator, Caiman, Melanosuchus and Paleosuchus (one alligator is found temperate China); the crocodiles found throughout the tropical regions of the world and comprising three genera.

The Tonda Wildlife management Area (TWMA) is bordered to the west by the Irian Jaya - Papua New Guinea border and to the east by the Mai Kussa River to the south by the coast and to the north by a straight line running south of Weam and Morehrad.

Being an Act- (a) to provide for the preservation of the environment and of the national cultural inheritance by- (i) the conservation of sites and areas having particular biological, topographical, geological, historic, scientific or social importance; and (ii) the management of those sites and areas, in accordance with the fourth goals of the National Goals and Directive Principles; and (b) to give effect to those Goals and Principles under Section 25 of the Constitution; and (c) to establish a National Conservation Council; and for related purposes.

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.