Papua New Guinea has proposed 12 new conservation areas, a move which would effectively double the amount of protected land.
The World Wide Fund for Nature says the areas include the Madang Lagoon, which is though to contain more than a thousand species of reef fish.
Also proposed for protected status is the Sepik River basin, which is said to be the largest unpolluted river in the Asia Pacific region and home to one of the world's largest crocodile populations.
The Papua New Guinea Environment Minister William Duma describes the proposals as the most significant expansion of the country's protected area system this decade.
