Borneo

Borneo (politically divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei) is the third largest island in the world. It has an area of 743,330 km² (287,000 mi²), and is located at the centre of the Malay archipelago and Indonesia. Borneo is considered part of the geographic region of Southeast Asia.

Natural resources

The island historically had extensive rainforest cover, but the area is shrinking rapidly due to heavy logging for the needs of the Malaysian plywood industry and also multinational companies such as Mitsubishi take their share. One half of the annual tropical timber acquisition of the whole world comes from Borneo. Furthermore, palm plantations are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest. The rainforest was also greatly destroyed due to the forest fires in 1997 to 1998 which were started by man and coincided with an exceptional drought season of El Niño. During the great fire, hotspots could be seen on satellite images and a haze was created that affected Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The remaining Borneo rainforest is the only natural habitat for the endangered Bornean orangutan. It is also an important refuge for many endemic forest species, and the Asian Elephant, the Sumatran Rhinoceros and the Clouded Leopard.

Related Topics:
Rainforest - Logging - Plywood - Mitsubishi - Tropical timber - El Niño - Haze - Brunei - Malaysia - Indonesia - Singapore - Orangutan - Endemic - Asian Elephant - Sumatran Rhinoceros - Clouded Leopard

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In order to combat overpopulation in Java, the Indonesian government started a massive migration of poor farmers to Borneo, called transmigrasi to farm the logged areas, albeit with little success as the fertility of the land has been removed with the trees and what soil remains is washed away in tropical downpours.

Related Topics:
Java - Transmigrasi

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Indigenous people (e.g. Kayan, Kenyah, Punan Bah and Penan) living on the island have been fighting for decades for their rights to preserve their environment against loggers and transmigrasi settlers.

Related Topics:
Kayan - Kenyah - Punan Bah - Penan

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The type of rainforests found in Borneo include rare peat-swamp forests and heath forest.

Related Topics:
Peat-swamp forests - Heath forest

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