Maybe Five Years Left For Borneo's Lowland Forests - ENN

[hatrack]

JAKARTA — "The lowland tropical rain forests in Indonesian Borneo could disappear in five years due to rampant logging and forest fires, endangering the survival of many exotic species, an international conservation group said on Tuesday. The world's third-largest island has lost forests equivalent to an area one third the size of Switzerland every year, or at a rate of 1.3 million hectares. It is home to more than 210 mammal species, including 44 found only in Borneo.

In its report called "Treasure island at risk", the World Wide Fund (WWF) said the loss of forest would drastically affect the island's wildlife, endangering ecological wonders like the pygmy elephant and orang-utan, whose long-term survival is already in doubt.

"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," Chris Elliott, director of the WWF's Global Forest Programme, said in a statement. By 2020, the remaining populations of orang-utans may be too small to be genetically viable due to fragmentation of their habitat, the WWF report said.

Indonesia, having lost more than 70 percent of its original frontier forest, has launched a crackdown on illegal logging, but many activists complain the authorities have failed to catch the big bosses behind the lucrative trade."

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http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7904

[sam sarrha]

1. you are complaining.?? hell .'.WE' dont have that much time left.!!!