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 ForestFocus on Indonesia: Page 1 The world's greatest variety of palm species grows in Indonesia along with 10,000 kinds of trees and 25,000 species of flowering plants (Collins et al. 1991). About 40 percent of its plants exist nowhere else, and its forests have a diversity of plants equaled only in Amazonia (Collins et al. 1991). One high-altitude forest on Borneo, Mount Kinabalu, has 70 species of oaks, and more than 100 grow on the island, along with 30 kinds of squirrels who feed on their acorns. Such trees are usually considered temperate forest species, but in these forests, which vary greatly in altitude and habitat type, an incredible variety grows. Two thousand species of orchids grow on Borneo (Mittermeier et al. 1999a). At high altitudes on Mount Kinabalu, the soggy ground is 90 percent covered in orchids, some with flowers as tiny as grains of rice (Lanting 2000).
Forests cover 85 percent of New Guinea (O'Neill 1996), the majority of which are humid, with very rich diversity in the lowlands. Above 750 meters, oaks and Araucaria trees related to those in South America's Atlantic Forest grow. Even higher, above 2,000 meters, tangles of bamboo and Nothofagus beech trees grow in great stands (Beehler et al. 1986). New Guinea's mountains rise above 4,200 meters, where alpine shrubbery and boggy grassland dominate. Mangrove forest fringes most coastal areas (Beehler et al. 1986).
Until the beginning of the 20th century, forests of many types covered most of Indonesia. The isolation of many of the islands from one another resulted in a radiation of evolution in all types of plants and animals. Many species of animals that had become extinct or rare on mainland Asia still thrived in Indonesia--rhinoceros, Asian Elephants, Tigers and Orangutans, for example. Other mammals, such as the extraordinary, long-nosed Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus), evolved among the mangrove swamps of Borneo. An unparalleled beauty and wealth of birds had evolved. Among these were birds-of-paradise, parrots, lories and cockatoos, colorful songbirds and hornbills. As the 21st century dawns, however, this diversity is in ruins, with many plants and animals close to extinction. The small original populations of many of the endemic species made them highly vulnerable to loss of habitat as the ancient trees were felled, and population growth consumed millions of acres for agriculture.
Of more than 1,500 species of birds native to the islands of Indonesia, or 17 percent of the world's avifauna, 430 are endemic to the country (Collins 1990). Indonesia has twice the number of breeding birds as North America in only one-fifth the land area. Many of these birds live on only one or two small islands. About 164 species are endemic to the Sunda subregion alone. The great loss of forest and other types of habitats in Indonesia is perhaps the most important cause threatening 319 species of native birds, of which 114 are extremely threatened (BI 2000). This is the largest number of threatened birds of any country in the world. Further field research may uncover even more species to add to this list, especially in view of the accelerating deforestation in Kalimantan, Sumatra and New Guinea.
Two hundred and one of Indonesia's 436 species of mammals--almost half-- are endemic, an amazingly high rate of endemism (Baillie and Groombridge 1996). Not surprisingly, Indonesia also leads the world in the number of threatened mammals--135 species, or 31 percent of all of its native mammals (Hilton-Taylor 2000). One thousand species of reptiles and amphibians live in Indonesia, 10 percent of the world's 10,484 herpetofauna (Collins 1990). Twenty-eight species of reptiles are considered threatened by the 2000 IUCN Red List Species, along with at least 59 species of freshwater fish. Research on endangered amphibians, fish and invertebrates in tropical countries lags far behind that in temperate areas, and the endangered list of the latter species is likely to grow when further research is done.
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