ILLEGAL LOGGING FEEDS CHINA'S HUNGER FOR TROPICAL WOOD - AND ANOTHER ECOLOGICAL DISASTER
Q. Hey, doesn't a rainforest just grow back
A. No
June 2007 – If the current rate of deforestation continues, Borneo – the world's third largest island – will lose most of its lowland forests in less than ten years, according to a new WWF report. This would seriously jeopardize the long-term survival of pygmy elephants and orang-utans, as well as the island's future economic potential. By 2020, the remaining populations of orang-utans may be too small to be genetically viable due to fragmentation of their habitat, WWF says.
The Treasure Island at Risk report supports a 2001 World Bank report that predicted all lowland rainforests in Kalimantan – the Indonesian part of Borneo – would disappear by 2010, and predicts an uncertain future for the island's remaining forests.
Today, only half of Borneo's forest cover remains, down from 75 per cent in the mid 1980s.
With a current deforestation rate of 1.3 million hectares per year – an area equivalent to about one third of the size of Switzerland – only peat and montane forests would survive in the coming years.
According to the report, forest fires, the conversion of forests to plantations, and rampant logging are driving the destruction of Borneo's forests.
"The consequences of this scale of deforestation will not only result in a major loss of species but also disrupt water supplies and reduce future economic opportunities, such as tourism, and subsistence for local communities," said Dr Chris Elliott, Director of WWF Global Forest Programme.
The report shows that there are about 2.5 million hectares of oil palm plantation in Borneo, and that is on the increase. It also reveals that, although banned, logging is still frequent in the national parks of Kalimantan.
More than 210 mammals, including 44 which are found nowhere else in the world, live on Borneo. Between 1994 and 2004 at least 361 new species were discovered and new ones are constantly being found.
IS THIS MORE OR LESS IMPORTANT THAN "CELEBRITY BOOT CAMP?"
It's all relative, of course, but these consequences might be worth pressing the pause button for:
- The forst fires from Borneo and the rest of Indonesia are major contributors to increasing carbon levels in the atmosphere.
- Rain forests don't grow back
- When the forests are gone, so are the orangutans and pigmy elephants. Two more species down the tubes.
- More than 210 mammals, including 44 which are found nowhere else in the world, live on Borneo.
IMAGE ABOVE: Palm oil plantations have become an increasing problem for the people, the wildlife, and the environment of Indonesia. Scientists estimate that over the last decade the population of wild orangutans has declined by nearly fifty percent. A recent study by the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) concludes that unless poaching and habitat destruction are stopped Indonesia's orangutan population will be extinct within a decade. Orangutans are the only great ape in Asia and are among humanities closing living relatives.
Citi is involved with one of the most notorious palm oil companies, London Sumatra (LonSum). The company is currently in the process of clearing and planting 372,000 acres of new palm oil plantations, despite resistance from local indigenous communities. To the many indigenous peoples who survive by harvesting renewable, non-timber resources such as rubber, fruit, honey, and medicinal plants the destruction of the rainforests for palm plantations means the end of their way of life. There have been many reports that LonSum uses members of the armed forces and local government officials to intimidate local people to sell their land and there is a growing protest movement against the company. LonSum has also been repeatedly accused on setting forest fires as a tactic for seizing land. In 1997 and 1998 fires scorched twenty-five million acres of land in the provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan causing massive smog that affected the health of seventy million people across Southeast Asia. . The Indonesian authorities acknowledge that plantation companies-who use fire as a cheap and quick means of land clearing-are in large part responsible for the fires.
Return to the Deforestation
Map.
More information on the decimation of
Borneo.
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