Borneo Rainforest
Where: Between three countries - Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia (Kalimantan)
This map shows the location of the Borneo Rainforest, located on the equator.
Area: The current area of Borneo is 743,330 km2. It is the 3rd largest island on the planet Earth.
Age: Around 130 million years old.
Statistics:
This map shows the location of the Borneo Rainforest, located on the equator.
Area: The current area of Borneo is 743,330 km2. It is the 3rd largest island on the planet Earth.
Age: Around 130 million years old.
Statistics:
- 15,000 species of flowering plants and 3,000 species of trees;
- 221 species of terrestrial mammals;
- 420 species of birds; and
- 440 species of freshwater fish.
Causes and Effects of the destruction
Causes
Causes
- These very old rainforest trees are cut down for commercial and industrial uses such as: furniture production, constructions and buildings. Most of timber is exported to Asia.
- Forest lands are cleared and trees are cut down for agricultural exploitation, but especially Borneo land is used for oil palm plantation. About 6 million hectares of oil palm plantations are found in Indonesia (11 million hectares in the whole world). (The image on the left shows the plantation of a oil palm tree) These are very profitable.
- Palm oil plantations can be extended in a future as palm oil is used as biodiesel and is used in cosmetics, soap manufactures.
- Need of plantations for rubber, industrail hardwoods, fuelwood and charcoal.
- Borneo rainforest is highly susceptible to fires. These fires caused droughts, which were very damaging.
- Transmigration programme - the effect of overpopulation of Java island. People were moved to areas such as Kalimantan, so forests had to be cut down.
- Logging companies need space for their offices.
- Roads need to be built for transportation.
- Hydroelectric power stations are built to make industrial developments possible.
- Mining of coal.
- Plans for building a railway link from mines to factories.
- The biggest and the most harmful effect can be seen on the animals and plant species. As the area of the rainforest is decreasing, home for many birds, insects, mammals is disappearing.
- People carry on with cutting down the forest as it makes profit for them.
- Oil palm plantation - orangutans live in areas that are favoured for establishing oil palm plantations: fertile lowland soils close to rivers. As the trees are cut down for the agricultural use, orangutans' natural habitat is reduced.
- Orangutans are shot by owners and farmers as pests on fields.
- Many tribes which live in Borneo rainforest are forced to change their homes, because of the destruction. Peyak and Dayan people are under threat. Their lives are based on shifted cultivation, but as the area of forest is decreasing they have to come back to same places with the soil which is ero
- Soil degradation - after destruction of forest, the soil is no more suitable for proper agriculture as the minerals which are on the top layer of the ground are washed off with new planted trees.
- Roads which are built through the forest create a noise pollution and cause deaths to many rainforest species.
- The burning method of destruction causes a big cloud of ash and smoke damaging animals (poor visibility and bad breathing conditions)
- Global warming - with the burning method the presence of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere increases and creates the graanhouse effect. (see the image)
- Loss of biodiversity - many unknown plant species with possible medical uses can be lost.
- Loss of soil fertility - rain washes the soil away (soil erosion)
- It is more possible for rainforest areas to be flooded as the soil can not keep big amount of rainfall.
The destruction of the rainforest by burning method