Why is the Heart of Borneo so important?

Rugged hills, carpeted with magnificent forests, straddle the boundary along much of the Indonesia-Malaysia border in the very heartland of Borneo.

Most of the island's rivers are born here - including the Rajang and Baram in Sarawak, the Kinabatangan (Sabah), Belait (Brunei), Kapuas (West Kalimantan), Mahakam (East Kalimantan), and the Barito (Central Kalimantan) - as rocky, whitewater streams, maturing as they flow down into the lowlands where they supply freshwater ecosystems throughout Borneo, as well as forming the waterways for the boats of Dayaks and other peoples.

In this unspoiled part of Borneo, upriver longhouses nestle along riverbanks and a patchwork of traditional shifting cultivation disturbs the forest without destroying it. Here, the cries of the gibbons still can be heard through the early morning mist, eagles and hornbills still can be seen, and the forests themselves retain their magnificent natural architecture across millions of hectares of the least accessible land.

It is truly a Heritage Area for Borneo, especially because the full diversity of tropical forests cannot be maintained if they are reduced to a patchwork within an otherwise human-made landscape. Successful forest conservation requires the maintenance of very large blocks of inter-connected forest, without which many species become extinct - especially those that need plenty of space.

In the forests of the Heart of Borneo roam orang-utans, elephants and rhinos, as well as lesser-known species such as the clouded leopard, sun bear, banteng (wild ox) and endemic Bornean gibbons. Surveys conducted throughout this area have established that there are well over 200 bird species, approximately 150 reptiles and amphibian species, and almost 100 different mammal species.

In reality however, a considerably greater number of species are probably found in the Heart of Borneo - just waiting to be discovered.