Top

Biodiversity and Conservation

Published in:

05-11-2021 | Original Paper

Too little, too late? Conservation exigencies for Borneo inferred from biogeographic considerations of its endemic plant genera against intense landscape modifications

Authors: Louise Neo, Hugh T. W. Tan, K. M. Wong

Published in: Biodiversity and Conservation | Issue 1/2022

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Natural habitats remain on the decline worldwide, while extinction risks have not yet been formally assessed for the majority of plant species. This is of pressing concern in especially biodiverse regions where there are hotspots of species richness and endemism which are also under intense development. Borneo is the largest land mass of the Sundaland biodiversity hotspot and has rich and unique biodiversity. About one-third of Borneo’s plant species are endemic and known from nowhere else in the world. Conservation exigencies are examined for a subset of these species which are of its 65 endemic genera. Preliminary conservation assessments are made under the IUCN Red List Criterion B. Areas of remaining forest cover, which could be prioritised to protect as many species of endemic genera as possible, are highlighted and examined against existing protected areas (PAs). More than two-thirds of the species of endemic genera are assessed as Endangered or Critically Endangered, and although existing PAs account for about the same number of species, they cover only a small proportion of individual species distributions. As large-scale population extinctions are the forerunner of species extinctions, this is of deep concern. Hotspots of species richness are indicated in forests at low- to mid-elevation, especially in northwest Borneo, but these areas are now mostly in logged or severely logged forests outside of existing PAs. The distributions and species richness patterns of the endemic genera highlight the conservation exigencies for lowland forest habitats in Borneo, which additional remedial conservation measures must now heed.

previous article The long history of rich fens supports persistence of plant and snail habitat specialists

next article Population structure of a grassland songbird (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) to inform conservation units

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Available only for authorised users

Anderson RP (2003) Real vs. artefactual absences in species distributions: tests for Oryzomys albigularis (Rodentia: Muridae) in Venezuela. J Biogeogr 30:591–605CrossRef

Antonelli A, Fry C, Smith RJ et al (2020) State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. https://doi.org/10.34885/172

Berry NJ, Phillips OL, Lewis SL et al (2010) The high value of logged tropical forests: lessons from northern Borneo. Biodivers Conserv 19:985–997. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9779-zCrossRef

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BCGI) (2021a) ThreatSearch online database. Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BCGI) (2021b) State of the World’s Trees. BGCI, Richmond

Bryan JE, Shearman PL, Asner GP et al (2013) Extreme differences in forest degradation in Borneo: comparing practices in Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei. PLoS ONE 8(7):e69679. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069679CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Cadotte MW, Davies TJ (2010) Rarest of the rare: advances in combining evolutionary distinctiveness and scarcity to inform conservation at biogeographical scales. Divers Distrib 16:376–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00650.xCrossRef

Cardoso P (2020) Package ‘red’, IUCN Redlisting tools, v. 1.5.0. Available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=red. Accessed 7 Sep 2021

Chase JM, Blowes SA, Knight TM, Gerstner K, May F (2020) Ecosystem decay exacerbates biodiversity loss with habitat loss. Nature 584:238–243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2531-2CrossRefPubMed

Chazdon RL (2003) Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances. Perspect Plant Ecol 6:51–71CrossRef

Chung AYC (2006) Biodiversity and conservation of the Meliau range: a rain forest in Sabah’s ultramafic belt. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu

Convention on Biological Diversity (2020) Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Available at https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/. Accessed 2 Jan 2021

Crozier RH, Dunnett LJ, Agapow P-M (2005) Phylogenetic biodiversity assessment based on systematic nomenclature. Evol Bioinform 1:11–36CrossRef

Daru BH, Park DS, Primack RB et al (2018) Widespread sampling biases in herbaria revealed from large-scale digitisation. New Phytol 217:939–955. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14855CrossRefPubMed

Dauby G, Stévart T, Droissart V et al (2017) ConR: an R package to assist large-scale multispecies preliminary conservation assessments using distribution data. Ecol Evol 7:11292–11303. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3704CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Deblauwe V, Droissart V, Bose R et al (2016) Remotely sensed temperature and precipitation data improve species distribution modelling in the tropics. Global Ecol Biogeogr 25:443–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12426CrossRef

Dormann CF, Elith J, Bacher S et al (2013) Collinearity: a review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance. Ecography 36:027–046. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07348.xCrossRef

Dunn RR (2004) Managing the tropical landscape: a comparison of the effects of logging and forest conversion to agriculture on ants, birds, and lepidoptera. Forest Ecol Manag 191:215–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2003.12.008CrossRef

Edwards DP, Larsen TH, Docherty TDS et al (2010) Degraded lands worth protecting: the biological importance of Southeast Asia’s repeatedly logged forests. Proc R Soc B 278:82–90. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.1062CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Edwards DP, Magrach A, Woodcock P et al (2014) Selective-logging and oil palm: multitaxon impacts, biodiversity indicators, and trade-offs for conservation planning. Ecol Appl 24(8):2029–2049. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-0010.1CrossRefPubMed

Forest Department Sarawak (2020) National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia. Scale 1: 1,800,00. Available at https://forestry.sarawak.gov.my/page-0-400-1012-National-Parks.html. Accessed 2 Jan 2021

Franklin J (2009) Mapping species distributions: spatial inference and prediction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Gaveau DLA, Sloan S, Molidena E et al (2014) Four decades of forest persistence, clearance and logging on Borneo. PLoS ONE 9(7):e101654. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101654CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Gaveau DLA, Locatelli B, Salim MA et al (2018) Rise and fall of forest loss and industrial plantations in Borneo (2000–2017). Conserv Lett 12(3):e12622. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12622CrossRef

Gaveau DLA, Salim M, Arjasakusuma S (2016) Deforestation and industrial plantations development in Borneo, ver. 2.1. Available at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). https://doi.org/10.17528/CIFOR/DATA.00049. Accessed 1 Feb 2019

Giam X, Clements GR, Aziz SA, Chong KY, Miettinen J (2011) Rethinking the ‘back to wilderness’ concept for Sundaland’s forests. Biol Conserv 144:3149–3152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.10.001CrossRef

Global Forest Watch (2014) World Resources Institute. Available at http://www.globalforestwatch.org. Accessed 30 Nov 2018

Grantham HS, Duncan A, Evans TD et al (2020) Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity. Nat Commun 11:5978. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Hanson JO, Schuster R, Morrell N et al (2021) Prioritizr: Systematic Conservation Prioritization in R. R package version 5.0.3. Available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=prioritizr

Hazebroek HP, Abang Kashim bin AM (2006) National parks of sarawak. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu

Hutton W (2008) Tabin: Sabah’s greatest wildlife sanctuary. Tabin Wildlife Holidays Sdn Bhd, Kota Kinabalu

Ibbotson R (2014) The history of logging in North Borneo. Opus Publications, Sabah

IUCN (2012) IUCN red list categories and criteria: version 3.1, 2nd edn. IUCN, Gland, Cambridge

IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee (2019) Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Version 14. Prepared by the Standards and Petitions Committee. Available at http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/RedListGuidelines.pdf. Accessed 3 Jan 2021

IUCN (2020) The IUCN red list of threatened species. Version 2020-3. Available at https://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed 3 Jan 2021

Joppa LN, Pfaff A (2009) High and far: biases in the location of protected areas. PLoS ONE 4(12):e8273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008273CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Kier G, Mutke J, Dinerstein E et al (2005) Global patterns of plant diversity and floristic knowledge. J Biogeogr 32:1107–1116. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01272.xCrossRef

Lee CKF, Keith DA, Nicholson E, Murray NJ (2019) Redlistr: tools for the IUCN red lists of ecosystems and threatened species in R. Ecography 42:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04143CrossRef

Liu C, Newell G, White M (2016) On the selection of thresholds for predicting species occurrence with presence-only data. Ecol Evol 6(1):337–348. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1878CrossRefPubMed

Lughadha EN, Walker BE, Canteiro C et al (2018) The use and misuse of herbarium specimens in evaluating plant extinction risks. Phil Trans R Soc B 374:20170402. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0402CrossRef

Lughadha EN, Bachman SP, Leão TCC et al (2020) Extinction risk and threats to plants and fungi. Plants People Planet 2:389–408. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10146CrossRef

Margules CR, Pressey RL (2000) Systematic conservation planning. Nature 405:243–253CrossRefPubMed

Meijaard E, Sheil D (2007) A logged forest in Borneo is better than none at all. Nature 446:974CrossRefPubMed

Ministry of Water Land and Natural Resources (2019) A master list of protected areas in Malaysia—a tool for national biodiversity conservation management and planning. Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources, Putrajaya

Moat J, Bachman S (2020) Package ‘rCAT’, conservation assessment tools, v. 0.1.6. Available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rCAT. Accessed 7 Sep. 2021

Muscarella R, Galante PJ, Soley-Guardia M et al (2014) ENMeval: an R package for conducting spatially independent evaluations and estimating optimal model complexity for MAXENT ecological niche models. MEE 5:1198–1205. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12261CrossRef

Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, da Fonseca GAB, Kent J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403:853–858CrossRefPubMed

Neo L, Wong KM, Tan HTW (2020) A synopsis of the endemic plant genera of Borneo. Nord J Bot 38(9):e02871. https://doi.org/10.1111/njb.02871CrossRef

Newbold T (2010) Applications and limitations of museum data for conservation and ecology, with particular attention to species distribution models. Prog Phys Geog 34(1):3–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133309355630CrossRef

Newbold T, Hudson LN, Phillips HRP et al (2014) A global model of the response of tropical and sub-tropical forest biodiversity to anthropogenic pressures. Proc R Soc B 281:20141371. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1371CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Nilus R, Chung AYC, Pereira JT et al (2014) The network of protected forests in Telupid Sabah. Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan

Phillipps A (1988) A guide to the Parks of Sabah. Sabah Parks Trustees, Kota Kinabalu

Putz FR, Zuidema PA, Synnott T et al (2012) Sustaining conservation values in selectively logged tropical forests: the attained and the attainable. Conserv Lett 5:296–303. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00242.xCrossRef

QGIS Development Team (2019) QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. Available at http://qgis.osgeo.org

R Core Team (2019) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

Raes N, ter Steege H (2007) A null-model for significance testing of presence-only species distribution models. Ecography 30:727–736. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2007.0906-7590.05041.xCrossRef

Raveloaritiana E, Wurz A, Grass I et al (2021) Land-use intensification increases richness of native and exotic herbaceous plants, but not endemics, in Malagasy vanilla landscapes. Divers Distrib 27:784–798. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13226CrossRef

Ricotta C, Bacaro G, Marignani M, Godefroid S, Mazzoleni S (2012) Computing diversity from dated phylogenies and taxonomic hierarchies: does it make a difference to the conclusions? Oecologia 170:501–506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2318-8CrossRefPubMed

Rivers MC, Bachman SP, Meagher TR, Lughadha EN, Brummit NA (2010) Subpopulations, locations and fragmentation: applying IUCN red list criteria to herbarium specimen data. Biodivers Conserv 19:2071–2085. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9826-9CrossRef

Roos MC, Keßler PJA, Gradstein SR, Baas P (2004) Species diversity and endemism of five major Malesian islands: diversity-area relationships. J Biogeogr 31:1893–1908CrossRef

Runting RK, Meijaard E, Abram NK et al (2015) Alternative futures for Borneo show the value of integrating economic and conservation targets across borders. Nat Commun 6:6819. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7819CrossRefPubMed

Sabah Forestry Department (2010) Fact sheets of forest reserves in Sabah. Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan

Sabah Forestry Department (2016) Forestry Department Notice (including a map of Totally Protected Forest Reserves and Other Protected Forest Lands in Sabah [As of Dec 2016]). Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan

Sabah Forestry Department (2018) Totally protected areas in Sabah (Year 2018). Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan

Salim M (2015) Protected Areas of Borneo. Available at https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a6e0ef26d0014c1c9d6c9374a58d7049. Accessed 25 Nov 2017

Sarawak Forestry Corporation (2020) List of Gazetted TPAs as of Nov 2020. Available at https://www.sarawakforestry.com/layout2/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/List-Of-Gazetted-TPAs-As-of-Nov-2020.pdf. Accessed 30 Jan 2021

Sarkar S, Pressey RL, Faith DP et al (2006) Biodiversity conservation planning tools: present status and challenges for the future. Annu Rev Env Resour 31:123–159. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.31.042606.085844CrossRef

Schatz GE (2002) Taxonomy and herbaria in service of plant conservation: lessons from Madagascar’s endemic families. Ann Mo Bot Gard 89(2):145–152CrossRef

Scriven SA, Williams SH, Ghani MA et al (2020) Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas for conserving range-restricted rain forest butterflies in Sabah, Borneo. Biotropica 52:380–391. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12708CrossRef

Song X-P, Hansen MC, Stehman SV et al (2018) Global land change from 1982 to 2016. Nature 560:639–643. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0411-9CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Tate RB (2001) Geological map of Borneo island. CD-Rom published by the Geological Society of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

The Forestry Department, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam (2014) The Government of Brunei Darussalam: the 5th National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Forestry Department, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, Bandar Seri Begawan

Thiers B (continuously updated) Index Herbariorum: A global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium. Available at http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/. Accessed 11 Jan 2020

Töpel M, Zizka A, Calió MF et al (2017) SpeciesGeoCoder: fast categorization of species occurrences for analyses of biodiversity, biogeography, ecology and evolution. Syst Biol 66(2):145–151. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syw064CrossRefPubMed

van Welzen PC, Slik JWF, Alahuhta J (2005) Plant distribution patterns and plate tectonics in Malesia. Biol Skr 55:199–217

Vancutsem C, Achard F, Pekel J-F et al (2021) Long-term (1990–2019) monitoring of forest cover changes in the humid tropics. Sci Adv 7:eabe1603CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Vane-Wright RI, Humphries CJ, Williams PH (1991) What to protect?—Systematics and the agony of choice. Biol Conserv 55:235–254CrossRef

Watson JEM, Shanahan DF, Di Marco M et al (2016) Catastrophic declines in wilderness areas undermine global environment targets. Curr Biol 26:2929–2934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.08.049CrossRefPubMed

Whitmore T (1984) Tropical rain forests of the far East, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Wieder WR, Boehnert J, Bonan GB, Langseth M (2014) Regridded Harmonised World Soil Database v1.2. Data set. http://daac.ornl.gov from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1247. Accessed 10 Oct 2019

Zizka A, Silvestro D, Vitt P, Knight TM (2020) Automated conservation assessment of the orchid family with deep learning. Conserv Biol 35(3):897–908. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13616CrossRefPubMed

Title: Too little, too late? Conservation exigencies for Borneo inferred from biogeographic considerations of its endemic plant genera against intense landscape modifications
Authors: Louise Neo
Hugh T. W. Tan
K. M. Wong
Publication date: 05-11-2021
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Biodiversity and Conservation / Issue 1/2022
Print ISSN: 0960-3115
Electronic ISSN: 1572-9710
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02320-6

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Technik"

Other articles of this Issue 1/2022

How do we study birds in urban settings? A systematic review

Effectiveness of ant communities to detect anthropogenic disturbance in Neotropical forest landscapes: a case study in the Brazilian Amazon

The long history of rich fens supports persistence of plant and snail habitat specialists

Prospects and challenges coexist in China’s new protected area system

Influence of land use on the diversity of pond-breeding anurans in South Brazilian grasslands

Amphibian species richness and endemism in tropical montane cloud forests across the Neotropics