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Borneo
*** Shopping-Tip: Borneo
Image:Borneo,Sulawesi(Celebes).jpg thumb|right|300px|Borneo (left) and [[Sulawesi.]]
'''Borneo''' (politically divided between
Indonesia,
Malaysia and
Brunei) is the
List of islands by size third largest island in the world. It has an area of 743,330 km² (287,000 mi²), and is located at the centre of the
Malay archipelago and
Indonesia. Borneo is considered part of the geographic region of
Southeast Asia.
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.
Image:Borneo-VE.JPG thumb|Satellite photo of Borneo.To the west of Borneo are the
Malay Peninsula and
Sumatra. To the south is
Java (island) Java. To the east is the island of
Sulawesi 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 above
sea level.
Administration
Image:Borneo2 map english names.PNG thumb|Map of Borneo
Borneo is divided politically into:
* The
Indonesian
Provinces of Indonesia provinces of
East Kalimantan East,
South Kalimantan South,
West Kalimantan West and
Central Kalimantan Central Kalimantan.
* The
Malaysian states of
Sabah and
Sarawak.
* The independent sultanate of
Brunei Brunei Darussalam in two parts.
History
The whole Borneo was controlled by Brunei Empire during its golden age from the 15th to 17th centuries.
Borneo was the main site of the
Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation confrontation between
Indonesia and
Malaysia between 1962 and 1966.
Natural resources
The island historically had extensive
rainforest cover, but the area is shrinking rapidly due to heavy
logging for the needs of the Malaysian
plywood industry and also multinational companies such as
Mitsubishi take their share. One half of the annual
tropical timber acquisition of the whole world comes from Borneo. Furthermore,
palm oil plantations are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest. The rainforest was also greatly destroyed due to the forest fires in 1997 to 1998 which were started by people and coincided with an exceptional drought season of
El Niño. During the great fire, hotspots could be seen on satellite images and a
haze was created that affected
Brunei,
Malaysia,
Indonesia and
Singapore. The remaining Borneo rainforest is the only natural habitat for the endangered Bornean
orangutan. It is also an important refuge for many
endemic (ecology) endemic forest species, and the
Asian Elephant, the
Sumatran Rhinoceros and the
Clouded Leopard.
Image:Dawn in Borneo.jpg thumb|left|[[Dawn in Borneo]]
In order to combat overpopulation in
Java (island) Java, the Indonesian government started a massive migration of poor farmers to Borneo, called
transmigrasi to farm the logged areas, albeit with little success as the fertility of the land has been removed with the trees and what soil remains is washed away in tropical downpours.
Indigenous people (e.g.
Kayan,
Kenyah,
Punan Bah and
Penan) living on the island have been fighting for decades for their rights to preserve their environment against loggers and transmigrasi settlers.
The type of rainforests found in Borneo include rare
peat swamp forests and
heath forest.
References
*Gudgeon, L. W. W. 1913. ''British North Borneo''. Adam and Charles Black, London. (An early well-illustrated book on "British North Borneo", now known as
Sabah.)
See also
*
Islands of Indonesia
*
Hikayat Banjar
External links
-
Borneo: Eco Warriors - Online documentary
-
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
Category:Islands
Category:Islands of Indonesia
Category:Geography of Malaysia
bg:Борнео
zh-min-nan:Borneo
ca:Borneo
da:Borneo
de:Borneo
et:Kalimantan
es:Borneo (Asia)
eo:Borneo
fr:Bornéo
ko:보르네오 섬
id:Borneo
is:Borneó
it:Borneo
lt:Borneo
hu:Borneó
ms:Kepulauan Borneo
nl:Borneo
ja:ボル�オ島
no:Borneo
os:Калимантан
pl:Borneo
pt:Bornéo
ru:Борнео
fi:Borneo
sv:Borneo
th:เà¸?าะบà¸à¸£à¹Œà¹€à¸™à¸µà¸¢à¸§
uk:Борнео
zh:婆罗洲
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