Protecting Asia’s largest intact tropical rainforest, a unique treasure of natural riches heavily threatened by logging and development of oil palm plantations.
The highlands of Borneo contain Asia-Pacific’s largest surviving tropical forest, and a treasure house of natural wealth, with three species new to science being discovered a month for the past decade.
But with logging companies owning concessions or having access to most of the surviving 22 million ha of forest, WWF is fighting to enlarge and interconnect the protected area network, and ensure that sustainability is built into all commercial uses of the forest. WWF’s 2007 breakthrough in convening the three governments sharing the island – Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia – to agree a tri-national conservation management plan is bearing fruit: a proposed huge Chinese-financed palm oil plantation which would have carved through the heart of this forest has been scrapped, together with a proposed road which would also have been hugely destructive, and the three governments are building cooperation. The key is to make sustainable forest management a priority – and the next two years will be crucial.
But with logging companies owning concessions or having access to most of the surviving 22 million ha of forest, WWF is fighting to enlarge and interconnect the protected area network, and ensure that sustainability is built into all commercial uses of the forest. WWF’s 2007 breakthrough in convening the three governments sharing the island – Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia – to agree a tri-national conservation management plan is bearing fruit: a proposed huge Chinese-financed palm oil plantation which would have carved through the heart of this forest has been scrapped, together with a proposed road which would also have been hugely destructive, and the three governments are building cooperation. The key is to make sustainable forest management a priority – and the next two years will be crucial.