New Guinea Highlands
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| New Guinea Highlands | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | -6.05, 144.03 |
| Country | Papua New Guinea,Indonesia |
| Provinces/States | Eastern Highlands Province,Chimbu Province,Jiwaka Province,Western Highlands Province,Enga Province,Southern Highlands Province,Hela Province,Highland Papua |
| Area | 117,000 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2025–2026 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The New Guinea Highlands growing region covers the central highlands of the island of New Guinea on both sides of the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It is drawn on the seven provinces of Papua New Guinea's Highlands Region and on the Indonesian province of Highland Papua. In 2001 cannabis in Papua New Guinea was cultivated mainly in the highlands,[1]: para. 564 and in 2009 most of the country's production came from highland places between about 1,400 and 2,200 metres.[2]: 227 On the Indonesian side army task forces found cannabis in village gardens and fields in Pegunungan Bintang and Yahukimo regencies in 2025 and 2026.[3][4][5]
Geography
The highland provinces of Papua New Guinea lie along the mountain spine of New Guinea, from near Goroka in the east to Mount Hagen, Wabag and Mendi in the west. Together they cover an area almost the size of Tasmania. Mount Wilhelm rises to 4,509 metres.[6]
Cannabis grows in Papua New Guinea from sea level to about 2,600 metres, but little of it is planted in the lowlands. Most is grown at about 1,400 to 2,200 metres, in places where the rainfall varies with the season: parts of Eastern Highlands, Simbu and Western Highlands provinces, and of Central Province on the south coast. The plant is commonest in the driest part of the highlands, and plants from seasonally dry highland sites are said to carry more of the active ingredient than coastal ones.[2]: 227
The region on the map is drawn on whole provinces. On the Papua New Guinea side these are the seven of the Highlands Region: Eastern Highlands, Simbu, Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Enga, Southern Highlands and Hela. On the Indonesian side the region takes in Highland Papua, the province of the Oksibil and Yahukimo growing areas. The two parts, about 117,000 km² together, are separated by Papua New Guinea's Sandaun and Western provinces. Central Province and the rest of the island's central range are not drawn in.
History
The agricultural survey edited by R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood judges that young expatriates probably brought cannabis into Papua New Guinea in the mid to late 1960s. By the late 1970s highlanders were using it and its smoke could be smelt in some public places in Kainantu that highlanders frequented. By the early 1990s expatriate field workers in Eastern Highlands and Simbu were regularly offered it in rural areas, and sightings in village gardens were reported more often. Social workers in the highlands spoke of the harm heavy use did to young men in some places, and young village men talked openly of how much they used. By 2007 cannabis cigarettes were offered for sale openly, or barely hidden, in the markets of Goroka, Kundiawa and Mount Hagen.[2]: 227
Cultivation
In 2001 Time reported that most villages in the highlands and some on the coast grew cannabis. In the magazine's account it was a convenient cash crop that needed little or no tending, had no season and could be harvested within months. In the Kompri Valley near Henganofi, in Eastern Highlands, its reporter saw a plant 2.5 metres tall in a kitchen garden among cassava, pumpkins and beans, its flowering tips up to 15 centimetres long, with other plants standing alone or in pairs on the hillside behind. Large plantings were uncommon, being easier to find and harder to protect. The police commander of Western Highlands, Superintendent Allan Kundi, told the magazine: "marijuana grows everywhere here, it grows wild".[6]
Time wrote that "some of the most potent marijuana on earth" was grown in the ranges around Mount Wilhelm, and that this cannabis, called Niugini Gold, was known by its red stems.[6] Cannabis is an illegal cash crop and a source of income for some people in rural places. In the early 1990s it was offered in rural parts of the highlands at K5 to K7 for a pouch of 30 to 50 grams. In 2007 the price in highland markets was 50 toea a cigarette, or K15 for a one-kilogram rice bag holding perhaps 300 to 500 grams.[2]: 394
On the Indonesian side, the four fields found at Aldom near Oksibil in September 2025 held 296 plants about 1.5 metres tall, hidden among sweet potato, mustard greens and maize.[3] In Yahukimo a task force found about 3,000 plants at Kima and 2,000 at Air Garam in July 2026, and another found about 21,400 plants ready for harvest at the Ibiroma complex in Kurima district in September 2026.[4][5]
Trade
By 2007 cannabis was sold more or less openly in the markets of at least three highland provincial capitals. Arrests of growers were sporadic.[2]: 394 Time reported in 2001 that highland villagers traded cannabis for factory-made guns. Herman Ambai of Waigar village in Simbu said that people had high-powered guns "because of the exchange", and the magazine wrote that in one place 10 kilograms of cannabis would buy an M-16 rifle. Members of a Sydney syndicate were caught in April 1995 flying 55 kilograms from Mount Hagen to north Queensland.[6] Bourke and Harwood judge that the international trade, the guns-for-drugs trade with Australia included, is probably overstated.[2]: 394
Enforcement
In July 2014 a police drug operation in Simbu called Weedim Grass uprooted mature plants at Gogo village, at the foot of Mount Elimbari in Chuave, after a tip-off that a large garden there held 534 plants.[7] In April 2019 the Simbu police drug squad, the Operation Weedim Grass Team, uprooted 132 mature plants at Mani village in Sinasina-Yongomugl. The provincial police commander, Chief Superintendent Jacob Singura, said that cultivation in Simbu was high compared with other areas because of its climate and soil.[8] In March 2019 police and soldiers uprooted 193 plants at Wapenamanda in Enga and arrested a man for growing and selling cannabis. Enga's police commander said that marijuana contributed to tribal fighting in the province.[9]
In Highland Papua army units made the finds of 2025 and 2026, most of them task forces guarding the border with Papua New Guinea.[3][4][5] At Aldom the soldiers checked the gardens with a drone before sweeping them, then destroyed the fields and handed the plants to the police as evidence.[3] In October 2026 soldiers and other units uprooted 1,657 harvest-ready plants on village garden land at Sinimbuk, in Serambakon district of Pegunungan Bintang.[10] In June 2025 the head of the Damai Cartenz police task force said that a cannabis garden in Kurima was run by the group of Egianus Kogoya, which the police call an armed criminal group (KKB), and that it grew and sold cannabis to pay for its operations and buy weapons.[11]
Growing Areas
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ International Narcotics Control Board (2002). Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2001 (PDF) (Report). New York: United Nations. ISBN 92-1-148145-7. E/INCB/2001/1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Bourke, R. Michael; Harwood, Tracy, eds. (2009). Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea. Canberra: ANU Press. doi:10.22459/FAPNG.08.2009. ISBN 9781921536601.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Imam, Raga (27 September 2025). "Satgas RI-PNG Temukan 4 Ladang Ganja yang Dikamuflase Jadi Ladang Jagung". kumparan (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 17 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Indonesia military seizes 5,000 cannabis plants in Highland Papua raid". Antara News. Antara. 16 July 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Pratiwi, Qadri (10 September 2026). "Satgas Yonif 725 temukan 21.400 batang ganja di Yahukimo". Antara News (in Bahasa Indonesia). Antara. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Ware, Michael (9 April 2001). "Savage Harvest". Time. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Police uproot drug farm". The National. 9 July 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Ukaha, Junior (15 April 2019). "Police uproot 132 marijuana plants in Sinasina-Yongomugl". The National. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "Marijuana Grower in Wapenamanda Arrested". EMTV Online. 12 March 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Nalle, Frengki (10 October 2026). "Sinergi Aparat Keamanan Kembali Berantas Ladang Ganja di Kampung Sinimbuk". RRI (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 17 October 2026.
- ↑ Rah Mahatma Sakti (13 June 2025). "KKB Egianus Kogoya Punya Kebun Ganja". JPNN.com (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026.