Another Threat to Borneo's Rainforests?

Abstract

![Figure][1] CREDIT: LOUISE MURRAY/ROBERT HARDING WORLD IMAGERY/CORBIS I welcome the recent initiative by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia to commit to conserve the highly diverse forests on the island of Borneo through the “Heart of Borneo” initiative (“Last-gasp effort to save Borneo's tropical rainforests,” News Focus, 13 July, p. [192][2]). This is timely and hopefully will lead toward improved conservation efforts and more sustainable land use in this beleaguered biodiversity hotspot. However, large areas of Borneo are already under threat from a nonsustainable land use—that of open-cast coal mining. The mining giant BHP Billiton plans to develop a number of coal-mining areas directly within the Heart of Borneo ([1][3]). If these vast surface mines are allowed to proceed, it may lead to a catastrophic destruction of pristine rainforest and associated loss of plant and animal species. If efforts to allow countries with tropical forests to obtain carbon credits from avoided deforestation come to fruition ([2][4]), the forests of Borneo will have value in a different currency, that of their forest-carbon stocks rather than the coal buried beneath them. 1. 1.[↵][5] 1. C. Rewcastle, 2. J. Ungoed-Thomas , “Mining giant to raze apes' forest home,” Sunday Times, 20 (15 July 2007). 2. 2.[↵][6] 1. W. F. Laurance , Biotropica 39, 20 (2007). [OpenUrl][7][CrossRef][8][Web of Science][9] [1]: pending:yes [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.317.5835.192 [3]: #ref-1 [4]: #ref-2 [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2. in text [7]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DBiotropica%26rft.volume%253D39%26rft.spage%253D20%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1111%252Fj.1744-7429.2006.00229.x%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [8]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00229.x&link_type=DOI [9]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000243294500002&link_type=ISI