The Last Tree of Borneo Jungles

Title :The Last Tree

Credits :Name of Photographer / Designer
Source :http://webool.blogspot.com/2013/12/last-tree-of-tenere-most-remote-tree-in.html

Borneo is an island in South East Asia. Surrounded by the Java, Celebes and South China Seas, Borneo is an ancient island. Millions of years ago a volcano began erupting under the seas. On and off it continued erupting, continued growing taller and higher.

Title :Borneo in Old Time

Credits :Name of Photographer / Designer
Source :https://globalengagementbirmingham.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/the-jungles-of-borneo/

The result is a body of land, covered in lush vegetation with amazing wildlife, shared by three countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Massive jungles are home to a rich and varied array of flora and fauna. In this drawing from 1862, a group of intrepid explorers are shown traveling deep into the jungle. Imagine you were there all those years ago.

What would you be thinking?
What would you be feeling?
What would you be wondering?
Where have you come from?
What is on the other side?

Let us know what you think, feel and wonder. Can you find images of the island of Borneo today? Post their web addresses in the reply section.

The report also notes that the state of biodiversity is worsening in the Asia and Pacific region. A trusted index for measuring biodiversity around the world is called the Living Planet Index (LPI), which can be regarded as an indicator of the health of the planet’s ecosystems. According to available data, the global LPI dipped by almost more than a quarter (30 per cent) between 1970 and 2008. During the same time, the LPI decline in the Indo-Pacific region was more than double at 64 per cent. The rate of disappearance of species loss is twice the global average in Asia and the Pacific.

The report specifically looked at four spots teeming with diverse flora and fauna–the Heart of Borneo, the Coral Triangle, the Greater Mekong Subregion and the Eastern Himalayas.

Title :Deforestation

Credits :Name of Photographer / Designer
Source :http://earthzine.org/2010/09/21/forest-carbon-mapping-using-remote-sensed-disturbance-history-in-borneo/

For example, the Coral Triangle is home to a whopping 3,000 species of fish and harbour to 76 per cent of the world’s coral species. In the Greater Mekong subregion (GMS), 1,200 new species have been discovered in the past 20 years, while on the island of Borneo, scientists have discovered 600 new species in that same time span. The Eastern Himalayas provide freshwater for one billion people in the region.

Biodiversity loss

The report indicts human activity for being the biggest reason for biodiversity loss in the region. Deforestation to make way for plantations and agricultural land and blowing up coral reefs to catch fish has resulted in mass destruction.

Put Borneo, for instance, lost an average of 850,000 hectares (ha) of forest over the past 25 years due to palm oil plantations, mining and timber production. At this rate, in the next eight years, forest cover will be reduced to one third of what it was 50 years back, the report says.

Title :Lost Trees

Credits :Name of Photographer / Designer
Source :http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/wpy/gallery/2013/images/wildlife-photojournalist-award/4795/the-last-tree.html

Similarly, deforestation has been a major issue in the GMS, with 8.5 million ha lost between 1990 and 2005. Poorly planned hydropower projects are threatening fish.

In the last 40 years, the Coral Triangle has lost 40 per cent of its coral reefs, and 80 per cent of the spawning aggregations of reef fish has disappeared. Meanwhile, among many other impacts, climate change is accelerating the melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region, creating threat of sea-level rise.

The report states that these biodiversity hotspots generate a huge amount of revenue for their regions, and their degradation will lead to great economic loss.