Study Challenges Assumptions on Borneo Deforestation

Home to a dizzying array of endemic flora and fauna, Borneo’s rainforests are among the globe’s most precious. And yet, no other tropical landscape is being lost as fast, with a third of the island’s old-growth forests – a chunk nearly the size of Syria – having been lost over the last four decades. Many point to the expansion of industrial agriculture to explain the loss; in particular, the boom in palm oil plantations, which today cover some 10 percent of the island’s 74.3 million...

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