The site comprises 10,000 ha of pristine lowland rainforest in northern Papua New Guinea, owned by indigenous landowners from Wanang Village and declared as Conservation Area. The forest has >500 species of woody plants and largely intact, mildly hunted vertebrate communities. The site includes a field research station (phone, radio, accommodation, catering, solar power) accessible on foot or by helicopter. Further, the site has 50-ha forest dynamics plot from the Center for Tropical Forest Science network, with >300,000 stems tagged and monitored from 2012. There is significant background information on plants, birds, frogs, and several insect taxa. Insect monitoring programme is planned from 2013.

Berchtesgaden National Park was established in 1978 and is the only German national park located at the Alps. It comprises three major valleys and covers an elevantional range from 600 to 2700 m. Ecosystems include montane mixed forest and subalpine coniferous forest, alpine grasslands, pastures and rocky habitats. The Department for Research and Monitoring is linked to the Techincal University of Munich. It conducts monitoring on climate, hydrology, ecosystem dynamics and biodiversity. Main research topics include drivers of natural ecosystem dynamics, human impacts on ecosystems and climate change effects on ecosystems.