19 Dec 2006
- Gland, Switzerland – At least 52 new species of animals
and plants have been identified this past year on the
island of Borneo, according to scientists.
The discoveries, described in a report
compiled by WWF, include 30 unique fish species, two tree
frog species, 16 ginger species, three tree species and
one large-leafed plant species.
WWF says that these findings further
highlight the need to conserve the habitat and species
of the world’s third largest island.
“The more we look the more we find,”
said Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator of
the Heart of Borneo Programme. “These discoveries reaffirm
Borneo’s position as one of the most important centres
of biodiversity in the world.”
Many of these creatures new to science
are amazing: a miniature fish – the world’s second smallest
vertebrate, measuring less than one centimetre in length
and found in the highly acidic blackwater peat swamps
of the island; six Siamese fighting fish, including one
species with a beautiful iridescent blue-green marking;
a catfish with protruding teeth and an adhesive belly
which allows it to literally stick to rocks; and a tree
frog with striking bright green eyes.
For plants, the ginger discoveries more
than double the entire number of the Etlingera species
found to date, and the tree flora of Borneo has been expanded
by three new tree species of the genus Beilschmiedia.
Several of these new species were found in the “Heart
of Borneo”, a 220,000km2 mountainous region covered with
equatorial rainforest in the centre of the island. But
WWF warns that this habitat continues to be threatened
with large areas of forest being increasingly cleared
for rubber, oil palm and pulp production. Since 1996,
deforestation across Indonesia has increased to an average
of 2 million hectares per year and today only half of
Borneo's original forest cover remains, according to the
global conservation organization.
“The remote and inaccessible forests
in the Heart of Borneo are one of the world’s final frontiers
for science and many new species continue to be discovered
here. We are just waiting for the next surprise,” added
Chapman. “But these forests are also vital because they
are the source of most of the island’s major rivers, and
act as a natural “fire-break” against the fires that have
ravaged the lowlands this year.”
At a meeting of the UN Convention on
Biological Diversity held last March in Curitiba, Brazil,
the three Bornean governments – Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia
and Malaysia – declared their commitment to support an
initiative to conserve and sustainably manage the Heart
of Borneo. It is now hoped that they will finalise a formal
joint declaration as a matter of urgency to put the Heart
of Borneo on the global stage of conservation priorities.
• The 52 new species were discovered
between July 2005 and September 2006.
• Borneo is one of only two places on
earth – the other one is Sumatra Island – where endangered
species such as orang-utans, elephants and rhinos co-exist.
Other threatened wildlife that lives in Borneo include
clouded leopards, sun bears, and endemic Bornean gibbons.
The island is also home to ten primate species, over 350
bird species, 150 reptiles and amphibians and 15,000 plants.
• A WWF report launched last year –
Borneo’s Lost World: Newly Discovered Species on Borneo
(April, 2005) – showed that at least 361 new species had
been identified and described on the island between 1994
and 2004. This amounts to three new species a month in
an area only a little more than twice the size of Germany.
The number included 260 insects, 50 plants, 30 freshwater
fish, seven frogs, six lizards, five crabs, two snakes
and a toad.
Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator
Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer
