Long Bawan, Krayan, where the subdistrict town and surrounding villages are still nestled within a pristine natural environment. Photo credit: the author.
By Rangkaya Bada
Based on a review of scholarly literature and trusted sources
“Oil palm is a tree too. It has leaves, doesn’t it?”
This remark by a senior Indonesian official in late December 2024 quickly ignited public debate.
Made in defense of continued oil palm expansion, the statement raised a deeper question about how forests are defined, valued, and governed. In Borneo, this question has direct consequences for Borneo Tour and Travel, an industry that depends entirely on intact tropical rainforests.
For Borneo Tour and Travel, forests are not abstract environmental concepts. They are the core attraction.
Visitors travel from across the world to experience primary rainforests, observe orangutans in their natural habitat, journey along forest rivers, and engage with Indigenous Dayak communities whose cultures are inseparable from the forest. Replacing these landscapes with monoculture oil palm plantations erodes the very foundation of Borneo’s tourism appeal.Oil Palm Is Not a Forest and Not a Tourism Asset
The claim that oil palm absorbs carbon dioxide and therefore does not constitute deforestation overlooks fundamental ecological principles. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is indeed a palm species within the Arecaceae family, but it is cultivated as an industrial monoculture rather than a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, had expanded oil palm plantations to more than 11.1 million hectares by 2014. Between 2005 and 2015, up to 50 percent of Borneo’s primary forest was lost, much of it converted to plantations. This transformation did not merely reduce biodiversity. It diminished Borneo’s value as a global nature tourism destination.
Tourists do not come to Borneo to see uniform rows of oil palms. They come for ancient forests, diverse wildlife, cool shaded canopies, and living rivers. Without forests, Borneo Tour and Travel loses its reason for existence.
Endemic Forests as the Backbone of Borneo Tourism
Borneo’s rainforests rank among the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. They support endemic species such as the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), hornbills, sun bears, and thousands of plant species found nowhere else. These ecological qualities define Borneo’s global tourism identity.
Oil palm, introduced from West Africa, does not create endemic habitats. Its expansion replaces complex forest systems with simplified landscapes that sustain only a limited number of generalist species. Research consistently shows that forest conversion leads to severe biodiversity losses, including up to 64 percent of endemic birds, 54 percent of mammals, and 39 percent of threatened amphibians.
As wildlife disappears, wildlife-based tourism collapses. What remains is an industrial landscape with little relevance for Borneo Tour and Travel or for travelers seeking meaningful nature experiences.
Monoculture Landscapes Versus Living Tourism Landscapes
Oil palm plantations are structurally uniform, featuring a single-layer canopy, limited undergrowth, and low ecological function. Studies indicate that mammal diversity in oil palm landscapes can decline by as much as 85 percent.
Natural forests, in contrast, offer layered canopies, microhabitats, stable microclimates, and resilient water systems. These characteristics are essential for river expeditions, jungle trekking, birdwatching, and community-based tourism, all of which are central to Borneo Tour and Travel.
Plantation-dominated landscapes are also hotter and drier. Local temperatures can rise by up to 6.5 degrees Celsius, while rivers become warmer, shallower, and more polluted. Freshwater biodiversity in plantation areas can decline by more than 40 percent, directly affecting river tourism and local livelihoods.
Short-Term Extraction or Long-Term Tourism Value
Oil palm provides short-term economic returns, but nature-based tourism offers long-term and renewable value. A standing forest can generate income year after year through guiding services, homestays, river transport, conservation work, and cultural tourism, without destroying the ecosystem itself.
For Borneo, the policy choice is decisive. The island can be promoted internationally as a stronghold of tropical rainforests, or reduced to an extraction corridor stripped of ecological and cultural distinction.
Borneo Tour and Travel represents an alternative development pathway, one in which forests are not barriers to progress but the foundation of a sustainable economy.
A Global Responsibility to Protect Borneo’s Forests
Deforestation in Indonesia has reached a critical threshold. The loss of Borneo’s forests is not solely a national concern. These forests store immense amounts of carbon, regulate regional climate systems, and support economies rooted in conservation and tourism.
International cooperation is essential, not as a challenge to sovereignty, but as a shared responsibility. Climate finance, conservation investment, community-based tourism support, and deforestation-free supply chains must all be strengthened.
Countries that import palm oil also bear responsibility. Sustainability claims are meaningless if primary forests continue to be cleared.
The Future of Borneo Tour and Travel
Equating forests with oil palm plantations is scientifically inaccurate and economically short-sighted. For Borneo, protecting forests means safeguarding biodiversity, cultural heritage, climate stability, and the future of Borneo Tour and Travel.
Without forests, ecotourism cannot survive.
Without ecotourism, local communities lose sustainable livelihoods.
Without Borneo’s forests, the world loses one of its last great tropical sanctuaries.
The real choice is not between conservation and development.
It is between short-lived extraction and a living forest economy that endures.
