Borneo

Information below taken from that fountain of all knowledge wikipedia:

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Administratively, this island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Indonesia’s region of Borneo is called Kalimantan, while Malaysia’s region of Borneo is called East Malaysia or Malaysian Borneo.

Borneo is also known for its extensive cave systems. Clearwater cave has one of the world’s longest underwater rivers. Deer cave, thought to be the largest cave passage in the world, is home to over three million bats and guano accumulated to over 100 metres high.

Borneo is very rich in biodiversity compared to many other areas (MacKinnon et al. 1998). There are about 15,000 species of flowering plants with 3,000 species of trees (267 species are dipterocarps), 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of resident birds in Borneo (MacKinnon et al. 1998). It is also the centre of evolution and radiation of many endemic species of plants and animals. The remaining Borneo rainforest is the only natural habitat for the endangered Bornean Orangutan. It is also an important refuge for many endemic forest species, and the Asian Elephant, the Sumatran Rhinoceros and the Bornean Clouded Leopard. World Wildlife Fund has stated that 361 animal and plant species have been discovered in Borneo since 1996, underscoring its unparalleled biodiversity. [6] In the 18 month period from July 2005 until December 2006, another 52 new species were found.

The island historically had extensive rainforest cover, but the area is shrinking rapidly due to heavy logging for the needs of the Malaysian plywood industry. One half of the annual tropical timber acquisition of the whole world comes from Borneo. Furthermore, palm oil plantations are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest. The rainforest was also greatly destroyed due to the forest fires in 1997 to 1998 which were started by people and coincided with an exceptional drought season of El Niño. During the great fire, hotspots could be seen on satellite images and a haze was created that affected Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

There are over 30 ethnic groups living in Borneo, making the population of this island one of the most varied of human social groups. The native ethnic groups are Austronesians and their languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language family. Some ethnicities are now represented by only 30-100 individuals and are threatened with extinction.