30/12/2007(Pacific Magazine) - Woodlark Island in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay province will become the subject of a study by U.S. scientists early next year.

The island is currently at the center of a tussle between Malaysian oil palm developer Vitroplant Ltd. and villagers who oppose the development of a 60,000 hectare oil palm estate.

It is understood that scientists from the Syracuse University in New York, the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the University of Texas will conduct a geological investigation into ultra high-pressure metamorphic rocks on the island.

The rocks are being exhumed naturally from depths of about 100 km to the surface; a geological process that scientists say continues today but is poorly understood.

Coincidentally, the island is also home to megaliths, large stone structures dating back approximately 1,200 years BP that Woodlark Islanders attach strong cultural significance.

Ironically the 85,000 hectare island is state-owned land, the result of a transaction in the 1880s between the islanders’ forefathers and one of Papua New Guinea’s then colonizers Great Britain.

While the potential of economic benefits flowing on from the proposed project is there, the islanders fear such a large-scale development could endanger the ancient stone structures as well as species endemic to the island.

At risk is the habitat for the Woodlark Island Cuscus, a medium sized marsupial which prefers to live in primary and secondary lowland dry forest.

But according to the Mongabay.com environmental website, it is not the only species endemic to the island. Others include a rodent, which has not yet received a scientific name; a gecko (Cyrtodactylus Murua), which was only described by science in 2006; another lizard species; two species of frog; and, fourteen mollusks.

Additionally, four endemic insect species live on Woodlark – two damselflies, a water bug and a riffle bug.

Despite the villagers’ concerns, the PNG government has gone ahead and advertised Vitroplant’s environmental plan in local newspapers to confirm that it intends to go ahead with the project, which includes the building of a US$300 million 100,000-tonne capacity oil palm methylester plant in the Milne Bay provincial capital Alotau.

The plant will convert palm oil into biodiesel for sale in both the PNG and international markets.

Vitroplant’s parent company, ASX-listed Overseas & General Limited (OGL), has signed agreements with British Virgin Island-registered Quantum Logistics Ltd. to develop the site and Malaysian firm Desa Lebu Sdn Bhd to plant the oil palm.

But work is yet to start at the project-site as villagers, led by medical officer Dr. Simon Piyuwes, continue to oppose it.

“If the project goes ahead the people in the villages on the island could rise up against it,” Dr. Simon and two other landowners warned during an interview with Pacific Magazine.

Samarai-Murua MP Gordon Wesley has prepared a petition to table in Parliament that would appeal for the return of the land to its traditional owners.