Bougainville has very good timber resources. Just over 40% of the island is forested and approximately half of this is estimated to be commercial forest. The remainder of the forests are inaccessible because of rugged terrain or swamps. As yet the timber resources of Bougainville have hardly been touched.

There are extensive deposits of copper and gold. However, mining ore high up in the Crown Prince Range , crushing it, concentrating it and shipping it overseas were expensive and difficult. The Bougainville copper project was one of the world's great feats of mining engineering.

The island is a naturalist's paradise with perhaps the many species of orchids taking pride of place. Over 65 species of birds have been recorded. Sea birds and land and fresh water birds are all well represented. A striking sight is the beautiful butterflies with the East Coast being the home of the unique ‘Bougainville Blue'.

There is a great profusion of frogs. They vary from the tiny leaf burrowing species to the large river frogs. Reptiles include the estuarine crocodile, geckos, skink, goanna, tree snakes and ground pythons. None of the land snakes are venomous.

The largest mammal on the island is the wild pig. Its numbers are decreasing rapidly with the advent of the shotgun as a hunting weapon. Other mammals include possums and many rodents, for example tree rats, flying fox and bats.

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