Data from: Trans-National Conservation and Infrastructure Development in The Heart of Borneo

The Heart of Borneo initiative has promoted the integration of protected
areas and sustainably-managed forests across Malaysia, Indonesia, and
Brunei. Recently, however, member states of the Heart of Borneo have begun
pursuing ambitious unilateral infrastructure-development schemes to
accelerate economic growth, jeopardizing the underlying goal of
trans-boundary integrated conservation. Focusing on Sabah, Malaysia, we
highlight conflicts between its Pan-Borneo Highway scheme and the regional
integration of protected areas, unprotected intact forests, and
conservation-priority forests. Road developments in southern Sabah in
particular would drastically reduce protected-area integration across the
northern Heart of Borneo region. Such developments would separate two
major clusters of protected areas that account for one-quarter of all
protected areas within the Heart of Borneo complex. Sabah has proposed
forest corridors and highway underpasses as means of retaining ecological
connectivity in this context. Connectivity modelling identified numerous
overlooked areas for connectivity rehabilitation among intact forest
patches following planned road development. While such
‘linear-conservation planning’ might theoretically retain up to 85% of
intact-forest connectivity and integrate half of the conservation-priority
forests across Sabah, in reality it is very unlikely to achieve meaningful
ecological integration. Moreover, such measure would be exceedingly costly
if properly implemented – apparently beyond the operating budget of
relevant Malaysian authorities. Unless critical road segments are
cancelled, planned infrastructure will fragment important conservation
landscapes with little recourse for mitigation. This likelihood reinforces
earlier calls for the legal recognition of the Heart of Borneo region for
conservation planning as well as for enhanced tri-lateral coordination of
both conservation and development.

婆罗洲之心（Heart of Borneo）倡议推动了马来西亚、印度尼西亚与文莱境内保护区与可持续管理森林的整合工作。然而近期，婆罗洲之心的成员国开始推行极具雄心的单边基础设施开发计划以加速经济增长，此举危及了跨境整合保护的核心目标。本研究以马来西亚沙巴州为研究区域，重点剖析了其泛婆罗洲高速公路（Pan-Borneo Highway）计划与区域内保护区、未受保护的完整森林以及保护优先森林的整合之间存在的冲突。其中，沙巴州南部的道路开发项目将大幅削弱婆罗洲之心北部区域的保护区连通整合效果。此类开发活动将割裂两大核心保护区集群，该集群占婆罗洲之心整体保护区体系总量的四分之一。沙巴州提出通过建设森林廊道与高速公路下穿通道，作为维持该区域生态连通性的解决方案。连通性建模结果显示，在规划道路开发完成后，完整森林斑块间存在大量亟需开展连通性修复的未被关注区域。尽管理论上此类“线性保护规划”可保留高达85%的完整森林连通性，并整合沙巴州近半数的保护优先森林，但实际上几乎无法实现有意义的生态整合。此外，若要妥善落实此类措施，成本将极其高昂，显然超出了马来西亚相关主管部门的运营预算。除非取消关键路段的建设，否则规划中的基础设施将割裂重要的保护景观，且难以采取有效的减缓措施。这一现状进一步印证了此前的呼吁：应从保护规划层面将婆罗洲之心区域纳入法律认可范畴，并强化保护与开发领域的三方协调机制。