JAKARTA, Dec 19: A new species of insect, animal or plant is discovered every month in Borneo, conservation group WWF said on Tuesday as it warned that logging and plantations threatened the fragile “Heart of Borneo” ecosystem.“Between 1994 and 2004, at least 361 new species have been discovered in Borneo,” WWF Indonesia director Mubariq Ahmad said.

“In the past 10 years, there is discovery of new species every month. We had found 260 new insects, 50 plants, seven frogs, snakes, six lizards, 30 fresh water fish, five crabs, two snakes and a toad,” he added.

Recent exotic discoveries include poisonous “sticky frogs,” “forest walking catfish” able to travel short distances out of water and the transparent “glass catfish”.

Large animals have also yielded surprises, with the Borneo orang-utan found to be a distinct species to its Sumatran cousin and the island's pygmy elephants recently reclassified as a separate sub-species.

“The discoveries of the new species in the area proves that Borneo, one of the world's last remaining rain forests, is among the most important biodiversity areas in the world,” he said.

WWF International launched its “Heart of Borneo” programme two years ago, covering a 22 million hectare rain forest shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the oil-rich kingdom of Brunei.

Mr Ahmad, who has visited the area numerous times, said its forests were a major source of water for Borneo, describing them as the island's “water tank”.

“If the forest is destroyed, the whole island will be devastated because most of the rivers on the island originate here,” he said.

Mr Ahmad warned that logging and palm oil plantation activities risk destroying the biodiversity in the area but acknowledged that the three Southeast Asian countries have committed to protect it.—AFP