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.
The North and North-western part of the island are the East Malaysian state of Serawak and Sabah, with the newly independent state of Brunei Darusalam between them. The rest of the island is part of Indonesia, divided into four provinces – East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.
Borneo/Kalimantan is the huge adventure travel destination. It is one the world’s third largest island covering the area of 747,000 square kilometer and covered by one of the world’s largest stretches of tropical rain forest through which flows tremendous mighty rivers which are the island’s highway.
Dayak is a collective name for over 200 different tribes living throughout Borneo’s interior . They are the true ‘people of the jungle’. The Dayak people lives in the hinterland along the banks of major river and in a long house. It is customary for them to live with a whole extended family or with one clan. Each family has their own compartment and the chief of the clan will occupy the central chamber Mahakam River – This giant muddy river is the highway to the interior.
The Mahakam divides itself into three geographical sections. The lower Mahakam, stretches from Samarinda to Muara Prahu just beyond Lake Jempang, an easy tour for visitors short on time. The middle Mahakam includes a series of villages and the upper Mahakam, is an isolated region generally reached by plane at the Datah Dawai airfield at Long Lunuk.
Orang Utan is derived from the Indonesian/Malay language means man of the forest. Borneo and Sumatera island are well known with its large rain forest on the equator, Orang Utan of a significant numbers exist on both islands. Travel to Borneo nowadays access available from few points of Indonesia such as Balikpapan, Surabaya and Semarang of Indonesia.
Borneo, of which Indonesian Kalimantan covers two-thirds, is a single, vast-ecosystem in which the thick, exuberant forest that covers the world’s third largest island acts as an enormous sponge.
Formed over millions of years, the rainforest of Kalimantan is almost completely self-sustaining, requiring little more than water from the skies to survive. The soil on which the forest grows is thin and poor, and rather than drawing nutrients from the ground, it feeds on its own debris, recycling the nutrients contained in the rotting compost on the floor. Trees soar upwards, reaching a height of seventy meters or more, providing support for vines, creepers and orchids, and creating a dense canopy of leaves that protects the layer of humus from being washed away by the fierce tropical storms. While the thick cover of the forest blocks direct sunlight, rotting leaves and root mass store water from the rains, releasing it gradually during the dry season. Thus, the forest also creates and maintains the dark, warm, dank environment essential for its own continuous growth and that of the life within it.
In sheer terms of number and range of types of plants and animal, this forest is richer than any place on earth. More than five million species live here, more than half of the world’s total, all on a single island. These include virulently poisonous mushrooms that glow in the dark, proboscis monkeys, named for their droopy, fleshy noses, orchid s in colors bright and subtle, carnivorous pitcher plants that lure insects by mimicking the pungent odor of rotting meat, the mighty orangutan, which build nests of leaves and branches where they sleep, often more than thirty meters above the ground, and more than six hundred different types of bird, including the hornbill and the pheasant.
Kalimantan is a single, vast ecosystem in which the thick, exuberant forest that covers the world’s third largest island acts as an enormous sponge.
The Punan, the original people of Kalimantan, and the Dayak, a later wave of migrants who arrived several thousand years ago, have lived in harmony with their natural environment for thousands of years, harvesting the produce of the forest without causing significant damage.
Some Dayak still live in communal longhouses on river banks and survive through the practice of a form of slash-and-burn farming ideally suited to the lightly populated hinterland. There are many different tribes, each with its own culture and language: some, like the Keyah and the Kayan, stretch their ear lobes with heavy brass rings and cover their bodies with tattoos of vines, snakes and abstract, swirling patterns. Amongst others, old women, shamans and healers, conduct exorcisms in deep trance.
Geography
Borneo is surrounded by the South China Sea to the north and northwest, the Sulu Sea to the northeast, the Celebes Sea and the Makassar Strait to the east, and the Java Sea and Karimata Strait to the south. It has an area of 743,330 km² (287,000 square miles).
To the west of Borneo are the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. To the south is Java. To the east is the island of Sulawesi (Celebes). To the northeast is the Philippines.
Borneo’s highest point is Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, with an elevation of 4,095 m (13,435 ft) above sea level. This makes it the world’s third highest island.
The largest river systems are the Kapuas River, with approximately 1,143 km the longest river in Indonesia, the Rajang River in Sarawak with some 563 km the longest river in Malaysia, the Barito River about 880 km long and the Mahakam River about 980 km long.
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.
The Island of Borneo is divided administratively into:
* The Indonesian provinces of East, South, West and Central Kalimantan
* The Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak (the Federal Territory of Labuan is located on nearshore islands of Borneo, but not on the island of Borneo itself)
* The independent country of Brunei (main part and eastern exclave of Temburong)
Ethnic and biological diversity
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. Much culture, language, ethnomusic and traditional knowledge has yet to be documented by anthropologists. Ancestral knowledge of ethnobotany and ethnozoology is useful in drug discovery (for example, bintangor plant for AIDS) or as future alternative food sources (such as sago starch for lactic acid production and sago maggots as a protein source).
Certain indigenous people (such as the Kayan, Kenyah, Punan Bah and Penan) living on the island have been struggling for decades for their right to preserve their environment from loggers and transmigrant settlers and colonists. Land reform is needed for future development in the face of rapid economic changes.
The type of rainforests found in Borneo include the high diversity mixed dipterocarp forest, the rare peat swamp forests and heath forest.
Researchers scouring swamps in the heart of Borneo island have discovered a venomous species of snake that can change its skin color. Scientists named their find the Kapuas mud snake, and speculated it might only occur in the Kapuas River drainage system.
World Wildlife Fund has stated that 361 animal and plant species have been discovered in Borneo since 1996, underscoring its unparalleled biodiversity.In the 18 month period from July 2005 until December 2006, another 52 new species were found.
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