Borneo is home to one of the world’s oldest rainforests, which is no surprise why Sabah, one of its provinces, is hotly contested between Malaysia and the Philippines. (Where there are ancient forests there are ancient swamps, and where there are ancient swamps, there is natural gas, but that is another story.) From an ecological perspective, the jungles of Borneo are priceless, because it is the last stronghold of Pongo pygmaeus, known to the lay as the orangutans (“people of the forest”), primate cousins to humans who could shed light into the evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens (us).
(Photo by axinar)
But the sad truth is that, endangered as orangutans may be, protection of their habitats is often left to chance, and this allows humans to encroach further and deeper into orangutan territory. Heartbreaking tales of illegal logging and poaching are common stories that cause the orangutans’ dwindling population, but they are not without hope. The tide of habitat loss can still be reversed. Even more so now that a new subspecies of orangutans have been discovered in Sarawak, a Malaysian province on the island of Borneo.
The jungles of Sungai Menyang were recently surveyed, and an encouraging discovery makes conservation an even more urgent matter that both the immediate community and the local government should hunker down into. Amidst the glum statistics of orangutan population, the said survey discovered Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus, a sub-species of hairy apes that dwell in the Bornean jungles. Following this discovery, the Sarawak government plans to set aside a protected area for this new species’ habitat.
Certainly, tourism potential will follow, as the gazetted area will likely be declared a national park. Tourism and ecological balance can be achieved, albeit delicately, if Malaysian government’s action on Sipadan is any indication. (The government had forcibly evacuated dive operators out of Sipadan, an island off Sabah coast, to allow its marine ecosystem to recover.)
Newly-discovered species indeed brings hope into an otherwise glum future of threatened animals, but this is not the only reason why conservation measures in Malaysia should be done diligently. Borneo hosts a staggering inventory of flowering plant species (15,000 of them), trees (3,000), mammals (221), freshwater fish (440) and birds (420).
Historically, the jungles of Borneo have been the center of evolution of many of these species, and a critical refuge to some of the world’s threatened forest characters: civets, clouded leopard, fruit bats, Sumatran rhinoceros and Asian elephants. Ecologically, the Bornean jungles form the nexus of evolution from which other species may be borne. It is as important to give species that are just coming to life a chance as it is important to sustain species that are swinging at the end of their rope.
