Charles Darwin's description of Borneo as a "great, wild, luxuriant hothouse made by nature for herself" is apt. The world's third largest island contains arguably the greatest plant diversity of any region on earth, more bird species than all of Europe and the same number of mammals as the continent of Australia. Within ten acres of its rainforests, the tallest in the world, there are more tree species than in all of North America.

Borneo's varied landscapes are hotspots for biodiversity and include lush rainforests, mangroves, swamps, coral-fringed offshore islands and the montane forests which reach their highest altitude on Mt Kinabulu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia.

Borneo is perhaps best known as the home of the Orangutan - but also harbours the Bornean pygmy elephant, the unusual proboscis monkey, carnivorous pitcher plants and a rare and celebrated orchid flora. It is also the home of gliding frogs and the world's largest bloom - the Rafflesia flower. In the last decade alone, 400 new species have been discovered on the island, including an extremely rare subspecies of clouded leopard.

The relatively unspoilt central region, known as the "heart of Borneo", is the focus of conservation efforts to mitigate wildlife trade and hunting, commercial logging and large-scale clearing for palm oil cultivation (a principal ingredient in 10% of Western-world supermarket produce).

For more information and images, contact timaldred@naturepl.com.

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