Borneo lowland rain forest is an ecoregion, within the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, of the large island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It supports approximately 10,000 plant species, 380 bird species and several mammal species. The Borneo lowland rain forest is diminishing due to logging,hunting and conversion to commercial land use.
The World Wildlife Fund has divided Borneo into seven ecoregions: five areas of lowland forest; the central Borneo montane rain forests; and the Kinabalu montane alpine meadows. The lowlands are distinguished by climate (as the eastern side of the island is drier) or separated by the large Kapuas River and Barito River, which prevent animals and reptiles from spreading freely around the island.
The other lowland ecoregions, in addition to the Borneo lowland rain forests, are:
The Borneo lowland rain forests described in this article consist of all lowland areas not clearly in one of the above categories. They cover an area of about 165,100 square miles (427,500 km2), parts of which lie in all the political territories of the island: Kalimantan (Indonesia), Sarawak and Sabah (Malaysia) and Brunei.
Lowland Borneo has a stable climate, with monthly rainfall exceeding 8 inches throughout the year and a temperature range of more than 18 °C.
During the glacial epoch, all of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and mainland Indochina were part of the same landmass. This allowed plants and animals to migrate from one region to the next. Now Borneo is separated from the Malay Peninsula and the other islands, but still shares much of the same plant and animal diversity, while less of the Borneo wildlife is to be found further east in Sulawesi.