As part of my grade 9 expedition, I spent a week at a research centre, DGFC, in a rainforest by the Kinabatangan river in Sabah, Borneo. The rainforest in Sabah is home to animals like crocodiles, 10 different types of primates, pythons, elephants, clouded leopards, bearded pigs and birds. At Danau Girang Field Centre or DGFC, researchers and students from Cardiff University spend months or years researching and rescuing animals found in this habitat that are usually understudied. They catch them, tag them and check for any illnesses, then release them back into the wild.
Factors like vegetation and water bodies directly affect the condition of the wildlife in a place. In Borneo, palm oil plantations are constantly harming the environment. Before the expedition, we were told not to bring anything containing palm oil and before reaching the research centre we noticed a lot of palm trees. Later, we were told that one of the biggest contributors to the decline of rainforest in Borneo are palm oil plantations along with extensive deforestation. The landscape of rainforest on the island has decreased from 75% to 30% and has become less dense than before.
There have been multiple events in the past that have led to the habitat fragmentation of this rainforest. Small carnivores are vulnerable to the effects of land use change, which is why habitat fragmentation directly affects them. One such small carnivore that is found in Borneo is the civet. A while ago, a researcher at DGFC tracked a civet and found that the civet had to move from his home which got destroyed due to the burning of a palm oil plantation. Commercially, civets are used to make Kopi Luwak (civet coffee) which is a delicacy in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are over-fed coffee berries, which come in their waste undigested, to produce coffee beans. This leads to severe malnutrition.
Similarly, bearded pigs are also affected by palm oil plantations. Bearded pigs are known to migrate in search of food. Palm oil expansion leads to the fragmentation of migratory routes of bearded pigs. This may result in their death from starvation. Animals, like bearded pigs, that live near plantations have an increased risk of being hunted. 50-95% of the bushmeat consumed in rural Borneo is bearded pig. Bearded pigs feed on fruit. Palm oil expansion leads to year-round fruit subsides.
Animals like pangolins and pythons are wanted for their scales and skin. Pangolins are victims of roadkill and pythons are hunted for skin trade. The reason these researchers spend their time rescuing and researching all these animals is because they benefit the environment in some way. Pangolins eat ants and termites, civets and bearded pigs help to disperse seeds and without pythons the numbers of prey species would increase to unnatural levels.
Throughout our trip, we did activities that contributed to the environment. We did river cleaning, cleared pondweed, planted trees and donated money to pygmy elephants at a sanctuary. The researchers at DGFC are working towards spreading awareness about the species they are researching for the better of the environment. Even though the condition of wildlife in Borneo may seem slightly bleak right now, I believe things will get better in the future.
