An international team of scientists discovers never seen plants and animals after a month-long trek in the Foja Mountains.

Mamberamo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A group of scientists have found a new 'Eden' in northern Papua. Birds, butterflies, frogs, and insects that have never been seen before or studied as well as unknown plants and flowers have been found.

The research group with members from the US, Indonesia and Australia trekked for about a month through an area in the mist-shrouded Foja Mountains, located just north of the vast Mamberamo Basin in Indonesian-controlled (western) Papua-New Guinea.

The expedition was organised by the US-based Conservation International, together with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

"It's beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest; there's no evidence of human impact or presence up in these mountains," Dr Beehler from Conservation International said.

"We were dropped in by helicopter. There's not a trail anywhere; it was really hard to get around," Beehler said. But "[i]t's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth."

Among the discoveries made by the team of scientists there is the six-wired Parotia berlepschi  or bird of paradise, a new species of honey-eating birds, more than 20 new species of frogs, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo and a series of previously never described plants, including five new species of palms.

• indonesia
• papua
• foja
• mountains
• eden
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• plants
• animals