WASHINGTON -- Scientists have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants this past year on the island of Borneo. The discoveries, described in a new WWF report, include 30 unique fish species, two tree frog species, 16 ginger species, three tree species and one large-leafed plant species.
"The more we look the more we find," said Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo Program. "These discoveries reaffirm Borneo's position as one of the most important centers of biodiversity in the world and why conservation there is so important."
Some of the creatures new to science include: a miniature fish, the world's second smallest vertebrate measuring less than a third of an inch 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. The new ginger plants more than double the number of the Etlingera species found to date.
Several of these new species were found in the "Heart of Borneo," an 84,000 square mile mountainous region about the size of Kansas that is covered with equatorial rainforest in the center of the island. Large areas of the forest are at risk from destructive logging and expanding rubber, oil palm and pulp plantations. Since 1996, deforestation across Indonesia has increased to an average of 7,700 square miles each year, an area slightly smaller than Vermont. Today only half of Borneo's original forest cover remains.
"The remote and inaccessible forests in the Heart of Borneo are one of the world's final frontiers for science," said Adam Tomasek, director of WWF-US's Borneo & Sumatra Program. "Certainly, many new species are yet to be discovered there. These forests are also vital because they are the source of most of the island's major rivers, and provide life sustaining freshwater and other ecosystem services."
At a meeting of the U.N. 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.
For further information:
Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator, Heart of Borneo Programme, t + 44 1483 426444, m +62 813 155 003 14, schapman@wwf.or.id Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer, WWF International, t +41 22 364 9554, ovanbogaert@wwfint.org
Notes:
The 52 new species were discovered between July 2005 and September 2006.
The report The search continues is available on www.panda.org/heart_of_borneo/publications
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 10 primate species, over 350 bird species, 150 reptiles and amphibians and 15,000 plants.
Journalists can directly download materials related to this report at:
https://intranet.panda.org/documents/folder.cfm"uFolderID=61441
Using the following login:
Username: intranet@wwfint.org
Password: dropbox
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, 7 frogs, 6 lizards, 5 crabs, 2 snakes and a toad. The report suggested that thousands more have not yet been studied. The report can be downloaded: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/newlydiscoveredspeciesonborneo25042005.pdf