Recent survey efforts in and around the Danau Sentarum National Park (DSNP), West Kalimantan, Indonesia suggest that the site comprises faunal biodiversity of both bioregional and global importance. Site faunal inventory has yielded a globally significant listing of 240 confirmed fish spp., or 71% of Borneo's freshwater fish fauna; not including 19 potentially new and endemic species awaiting confirmation. This data suggesting the site to be the most biodiverse in Indonesia with respect to fish fauna, and one of the world's most biodiverse lake systems. With regionally significant listings of 237 confirmed bird species, and a tentative listing of 143 mammal species (representing 48% and 65% of Borneo's bird and non-marine mammal fauna, and 14% and 65% of Borneo's endemic bird and mammal species), such biodiversity data form an adequate basis, and ample justification, for initiation of immediate habitat and faunal community conservation effort at the site. Yet ecological detail lacks to initiate firmer "species-focused" conservation programs. This data gap, and the need for further ecological and taxonomic research, becoming increasingly crucial as the risk of site and regional species extinction mounts in face of accelerating habitat destruction and uncontrolled harvest and trade impacts.

Introduction and methods

Numerous authors (e.g. Dennis, et al, 1997; Giesen, 1987; Kottelat, 1993) have mentioned the Danau Sentarum National Park (DSNP) and near catchment surrounds as a site of global importance in terms of ecological uniqueness, regional hydrological importance, and local and regional economic importance. However, the importance of the site as a refuge and habitat for an expanding list of animal species, has only been realized as a result of surveys over the last 10 years. With the varied terrestrial and aquatic habitats of the Danau Sentarum lake basin and swamp forest surrounds having been shown to constitute one of the more important and richer sites for wildlife biodiversity within Borneo.

In view of the DSNP site's importance, and against a background of increasing human population and development pressure, there is currently a pressing need to initiate concerted conservation action to head-off the mounting risks of local and regional species extinction. As such, the need for clear definition of the full faunal biodiversity of the DSNP site is becoming more crucial as time passes. The following account thus goes some way to define the importance of DSNP and its swamp and hill forest surrounds in terms of faunal biodiversity. This output hopefully provides a framework of baseline data adequate to support the wildlife preservation and site conservation programs urgently needed within DSNP and near catchment surrounds.

Basic methodology in this report follows the following sequence for each main groups of species, i.e. invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, birds and mammals: 1. All the DSNP survey literature on these groups is evaluated; 2. Complete species lists are shown in the Annexes; and 3. To highlight the "key" conservation species of the site, an assessment is made of the endemic, globally threatened (IUCN), CITES listed, legally protected, rare and locally vulnerable species that occur in the area....