Portal:Indonesia/AOTW/4, 2008

Kalimantan is the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. It is divided administratively into the provinces of East, South, West and Central Kalimantan

In the early 19th century, British and Dutch governments signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to exchange trading ports under their controls and assert spheres of influences, in which indirectly set apart the two parts of Borneo into British and Dutch controlled areas. China has had historical trading links with the inhabitants of the island.

The largest river systems are the Kapuas River, with approximately 1,143 km the longest river in Indonesia. There are about 15,000 species of flowering plants with 3,000 species of trees (267 species are dipterocarps), 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of resident birds in Borneo (MacKinnon et al. 1998). It is also the centre of evolution and radiation of many endemic species of plants and animals. The remaining Borneo rainforest is the only natural habitat for the endangered Bornean Orangutan. (Read More...)