Photo taken on June 27, 2006 shows an Enhydris Gyii, known locally in West Kalimantan as Kapuas mud snake, which can change the color of its skin. Researchers scouring through Borneo island have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants since 2005.   Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 19 - At least 52 new species of animals and plants have been identified this past year on the island of Borneo, according to scientists.

 

According to a report by WWF, the discoveries include 30 unique fish species, two tree frog species, 16 ginger species, three tree species and one large-leafed plant species.

 

WWF says that these findings further highlight the need to conserve the habitat and species of the world’s third largest island.

 

“The more we look the more we find,” said Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo Programme. “These discoveries reaffirm Borneo’s position as one of the most important centres of biodiversity in the world.”

 

Many of these creatures new to science are amazing: a miniature fish – the world’s second smallest vertebrate, measuring less than one centimetre in length and found in the highly acidic blackwater peat swamps of the island.

 

Several of these new species were found in the “Heart of Borneo”, a 220 thousand sq km mountainous region covered with equatorial rainforest in the centre of the island. But WWF also warns that this habitat continues to be threatened with large areas of forest being increasingly cleared for rubber, oil palm and pulp production. Since 1996, deforestation across Indonesia has increased to an average of 2 million hectares per year and today only half of Borneo's original forest cover remains, according to the global conservation organization.