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.
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(Adapted from Gaveau et al. 2016), with the point occurrence records of species of endemic genera shown as red dots
The source for the elevation data is the ALOS Global Digital Surface Model version 2.1 obtained at 30-m spatial resolution from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
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Acknowledgements
The keepers and curators of BO, BRUN, K, KEP, L, SAN, SAR and SING are thanked for facilitating our study of material at the herbaria and sharing specimen data. We are grateful to Peter Boyce, Wong Sin Yeng, Willem de Wilde, Brigitta Duyfjes, Deng Yunfei, Jana Leong-Skornickova, Michele Rodda, Rogier de Kok, George Staples, Sam Yen Yen, Peter van Welzen and Darin Penneys for sharing specimen listings and advice on some of the endemic genera.
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Neo, L., Tan, H.T.W. & Wong, K.M. Too little, too late? Conservation exigencies for Borneo inferred from biogeographic considerations of its endemic plant genera against intense landscape modifications. Biodivers Conserv 31, 59–76 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02320-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02320-6