"The principal source of climate change is not oil use, which generates the equivalent of 2.2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere each year, but tropical deforestation and soil degradation, which equates to annual release of 2.8 gigatonnes."

Guy Reinaud, Pro-Natura International

BTRF's core mission is the long-term protection and management of Borneo’s critically threatened rainforests. These are being depleted in the Indonesian provinces of Kalimantan at a rate of 1'500,000 hectares a year - with consequent grave implications for global climate change patterns given that deforestation in the tropics accounts for ten to 20% of the carbon released into the atmosphere by human activity (The Economist, 24th July, 2004).

The threats are imminent and the need for action immediate. Continued deforestation at current annual rates in Brazil and Indonesia alone would negate four fifths of the emissions reductions gained by implementing the Kyoto Protocol in its first commitment period from 2008 to 2012 (Santilli and others, 2003), thereby hopelessly compromising the Protocol’s chances of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that avoids irreversible damage to the global climate system.

14.2 million hectares of tropical forest and their associated biodiversity are being lost to deforestation every year. At this rate, 1 to 10% of the world’s species could be lost forever within 25 years, a shameful waste on both intrinsic and economic grounds given that the economic value of global biodiversity is estimated in the trillions of dollars per year.

The commercial worth of all genetic materials is estimated at US$ 500 to 800 billion per year. A ten hectare plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain more than 700 species of trees – a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America!