Today, an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people live in the humid swamplands of Asmat in the south of West Papua. The swamps and alluvial land are dissected by numerous interconnected rivers that rise in the central uplands. Since the jungle is virtually impenetrable, life is concentrated largely along the riverbanks. The exception to this are the so-called “tree people”: hunters and gatherers in the transitional zone to the mountains.As early as the 1980s, during an expedition that led from the central uplands to the plains of Asmat on the upper Brazza River, I came across single examples of inhabited tree or stilt houses at a height of roughly 8 to 12 metres above the ground. The part-district of Kecamatan Kouh, which adjoins this area to the north-east, was regarded until 15 years ago even by ethnologists as terra incognita. The reasons for this were its lack of mineral resources and its warlike inhabitants. One knows from missionaries that it is the home of the Korowai and the related Kombai people. According to estimates, roughly 4,000 tribesmen and -women live here, organized in several dozen mutually hostile clans. The Korowai and Kombai are probably the last “tree people” in New Guinea.