Java and Borneo

Many images in this gallery were taken during annual trips to Tanjung Puting National Park, Kalimantan Tengah, where I have been visiting since 2006. This is a region of lowland, nutrient poor peat and heath swamp rain forest, covering over 3000km2, or roughly the size of Cornwall. This type of habitat is increasingly under threat, and Tanjung Puting is one of the largest protected areas remaining in south east Asia. It is home to a wide range of primates, including orangutans, proboscis monkeys, agile gibbons and long-tailed macaques. Other mammals include sun bears, flying foxes, clouded leopard, Malay weasel and leopard cats. Reptiles, including false gharials and salt-water crocodiles are common, and the insect diversity is incredibly high. Tanjung Puting is famous for having the highest density of orangutans remaining in the wild. This critically important reserve is under threat from illegal logging, palm oil plantations and illegal mining. This latter threat results in the loss of the thin top soil, through the use of high pressure hoses, turning the region into a moonscape-like wasteland. The Sekonyer river, which defines one border of the park, is brown from the silt of gold mining, rather than the black water river it should be. Mercury is used to help separate out the gold, further polluting the water. More recently, as gold deposits become exhausted, the quartz rich sand is mined for zirconium, an increasingly important mineral for modern industries, including electronics and nuclear reactors.

Other images were taken in Central Java, in and around the village of Candirejo. Others were taken at Tanjung Kluang, a promontory jutting into the Java sea, near Tanjung Puting. The contrast between the intensively farmed, lush and fertile habitats of Java and the nutrient poor alluvial soils of central Kalimantan is stark, and is reflected in the population densities found in these locations. Even a very small plot will be used to grow half a dozen crop species (crops such as jackfruit, coconut, chilli peppers, bananas, snakefruit, maize, sugar palm and cassava; in addition, trees such as mahogany and teak are planted for conservation purposes). Even though, Java looks rich and diverse, there is little natural about the environment, as every available square metre is used for agriculture.