The Prince, whose foundation-The Prince Albert II Foundation, is one of the major financiers of the Papua Niugini Biodiversityexpedition currently being undertaken at Mt Wilhelm and Madang, had made this private visit to see first-hand the progress of work being done. The expedition has been in progress for over a month by a group of scientists from 20 countries.
The marine aspect of the expedition is in Madang Province and covers the Madang lagoon and the Bismark Sea while the terrestrial component is based at Mt Wilhelm in Simbu province.
The objectives of the Papua New Guinea Biodiversity Expedition have largely been to document the fauna and flora of PNG from the bottom of the Bismark Sea to the top of Mt Wilhelm.
The exercise has been funded by several donors, the first of which is the Prince Albert II Foundation headed by the Prince, hence his private visit. Other entities funding this two-month long expedition include, the University of PNG, the French Museum of Natural History, Pro-Natura International and the French Institute for Research for Development, the expedition’s organising institutions are the Divine Word University and Binatang Research Centre.
The prince had capped off his visit with an announcement by the Head Scientist of the Marine expedition and Senior Scientist Professor Philippe Bouchet announcing to the Prince, a discovery of a miniature crab specie.
Professor Bouchet said the expedition was about discovering new species not documented before and the team had decided it only fitting that they name one of their finds as Actaea-Grimaldii. The latter part of the name Grimaldii after the household of which the Prince Albert II is from.
He presented to the Prince on behalf of the team, a copy of the photograph of the miniature crab sporting very bright colours of orange, red and white before pulling out from his pocket a bottle containing the actual specimen. He said the scientist was 98 per cent sure that this was a new find, which had been discovered in the waters of the Madang Lagoon.Prince Albert II had arrived on November 30 aboard his private jet via Singapore to a very low key reception.
Accompanying the prince was a small entourage including the Prince Albert II Foundation Vice President and Chief Executive Officer H.E Bernard Fautrier. They were received by Madang Governor Jim Kas, his wife Thresa, the Deputy Governor Bob Wati and Madang Provincial Police Commander Superintendent Anthony Wagambie (Jnr) and a traditional singsing group from Riwo village. Under heavy police escort, he was driven to the Madang Resort Hotel then an hour later back to Divine Word University-the expedition laboratory and base.There he was given a tour of the laboratory before spending time meeting with Professor Bouchet and his team of scientists before he took time to address a private reception which was also attended by a group of landowners from the Bel area.
On the 1st of December he and a team of selected scientists flew out of Madang in a helicopter to Swire Research Station at a place called Wanag, a pristine conversation area, in the Middle Ramu district.He is understood to have spent the night there and returned the next morning where he then proceeded to boarding the expedition’s research vessel the MV Alis and had headed out to sea to the Astrolabe Bay to see the deep sea sampling being done by the scientists there.
The Prince departed without any grand fanfare taking time out to even shake the hand of his chauffeur for the two days he was in Madang town.
Source: The Post Courier, Monday 3rd December, 2012
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