Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea. Politically, it consists of Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of the island), Sarawak and Sabah (East Malaysia), and the oil-rich, independent sultanate of Brunei. Well noted for its rich biodiversity, it is a unique place to study natural tropical ecosystems.
Mountain ranges run through the center of the island from north to south. Few peaks exceed 2,000 meters and the highest peak is Mt. Kinabalu (4,101 meters) in Sabah. More than half of the island is under 150 meters in elevation, and tidal water can go up to 100 kilometers inland. Many rivers radiate from the central uplands, the three largest being the Kapuas (1,143 kilometers) flowing to the west, the Barito (900 kilometers) to the south, and the Mahakam (775 kilometers) to the east. They provide an important means of travel as much of the lowland plain, especially in the south, is poorly drained and swampy. Despite the luxuriant vegetation, soils are generally of very poor quality and have high levels of weathering, leaching, and biological activity. The island has a moist, tropical climate. Temperatures are relatively constant throughout the year, 25°C in the lowlands. Rainfall occurs throughout the year, with few months of less than 200 millimeters of rainfall.
Borneo has some of most species-rich habitats on earth. It has an estimated ten to fifteen thousand species of flowering plants, at least three thousand species of trees (including 267 species of dipterocarps,the most important group of commercial timber trees in Southeast Asia), two thousand species of orchids, and one thousand species of ferns. It is home to the remarkable carnivorous pitcher plant, occurring in twenty-eight species of the genus Nepenthes. Its rich fauna is Asian in origin and characterized by deer, wild cattle, pigs, cats, monkeys, apes (the orangutan being best known), squirrels, and oriental birds.
The island is sparsely populated by 12.5 million people (1990) confined mainly to the coast. But they have far-reaching impacts on the environment, especially in the past twenty years in exploiting the tropical forests, oil and gas resources, and other mineral wealth. Rapid deforestation results from logging, clearing for agriculture, and human settlement schemes. For example, Sabah began exporting timber in early 1960s and by the 1990s all major lowland forests had been logged. Traditional slash-and-burn agriculture is still carried out in Borneo.
There is a strong need for Borneo's development to be planned in a rational way for sustainable use. Its diverse tropical habitats and rich biodiversity are important reservoirs of genetic material for humankind.
Further Reading
Brookfield, Harold, Lesley Potter, and Yvonne Byron. (1995) In Place of the Forest: Environmental and Socio-Economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
MacKinnon, Kathy, Gusti Hatta, Hakimah Halim, and Arthur Mangalik. (1996) The Ecology of Kalimantan. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions.
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