THE chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, the world鈥檚 biggest
source of logs from the rainforest, was enjoying an unusual day 鈥� he was in
the good books of environmentalists. He and the forestry minister of Indonesia
were launching a cross-border conservation area on the island of Borneo that
was, he boasted, 鈥減ossibly the largest tract of rainforest in the world
totally dedicated to biodiversity conservation鈥�.
Taib Mahmud revealed to assembled dignitaries that the million hectares of
virgin rainforest 鈥� home to hornbills, orang-utans, the rare Sumatran rhino
and 51 species of amphibian 鈥� had yielded more than a dozen new species during
surveys by scientists in the past year. 鈥淎nd guess what? They鈥檝e named one
after me. And another after my wife.鈥�
Official literature boasted that the new species, uncovered by an
international scientific expedition to the conservation area 鈥渨ithin less than
six months of the start of field surveys鈥�, included 鈥渟everal new plants, a
terrestrial crab, a snake and a lizard鈥�. It was rumoured that the chief
minister and his wife turned down immortalisation in the name of the Engkari
pipe snake or the Sarawak vine lizard, preferring a couple of trees new to
science.
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鈥淣ew to science?鈥� 杏吧原创s from the Sarawak Forestry Department,
attending the exhibition which launched the conservation area, hinted that all
might not be quite what it seemed. They had helpfully attached some additional
details to the display about the 鈥渘ew species鈥� of trees. These were the
original field notes written by forestry scientist Paul Chai after he
discovered the trees that now bear the names of Taib Mahmud and his wife.
Chai, the notes revealed, discovered Helicia mahmudii in hillside
vegetation twenty years ago, on 12 March 1974. And he turned up the flowering
shrub named after the chief minister鈥檚 wife, Ixora laila, on a riverbank near
a school later that month. (Both plants were already well known to the local
Iban tribe, who called them 鈥減alis鈥� and 鈥済ergansai鈥�.)
Much else about the launch of the Lanjak-Entimau Bentuang-Karimun
Conservation Area had an air of illusion. The launch took place on the edge of
the conservation area in a 鈥渓ong house鈥�. Not a traditional tribal long house 鈥�
but the brand new Hilton Long House, a 拢110-a-night hotel on the shores
of the Batang Ai hydroelectric reservoir. A decade ago, the reservoir flooded
the Iban people from their own, and more modest long houses in the valley.
What of the conservation area itself? Most of the Sarawak half was
inaugurated as a wildlife sanctuary eleven years ago, with access limited to
scientists. But the 鈥渃onservation area鈥� will now be opened up to ecotourists,
said the chief minister.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian half remains unexplored by scientists, ungazetted
by administrators 鈥� and unpoliced by park rangers. 鈥淚ts boundaries are just
rough lines on a map,鈥� said one Sarawak scientist.