Ecoregional Assessment of Biological Diversity in East Kalimantan

East Kalimantan Ecoregional Assessment: Chapter 1 – Background & Analysis Process
must have all the key component parts balanced and contributing to the processes that
cleanse the circulatory system, allow the body to move when necessary to adapt to changing
circumstances, and that will facilitate reproduction and continuity of its genetic makeup even
in uncertain future scenarios.
To carry the analogy further, this body must resemble and reflect the regional differences that
characterize the landscape that produced it – it must reflect the unique attributes of the East
Kalimantan province. This is the theoretical foundation of our portfolio assembly process.
A single Major River, and associated lakes if present, was selected for the portfolio of
conservation sites from each of the four stratigraphic units based upon its relative viability
ranking described previously. Other conservation targets identified in this ECA (i.e. other
target ecological systems, important bird areas, centers of plant diversity, and protected
areas) and other important habitats (such as the 10 RePPProT land system aggregates,
protected forests, proposed protected areas, or other areas with important faunal species),
were selected to group around these rivers where possible. This was designed to ensure that
functionality of selected rivers was the primary driver for assembling portfolio sites. There is
one drawback however in this approach, which will be discussed in more detail in the Threats
section – that of uncontrolled access for most human activities.
Geographic representation and replication of targets and their occurrences in the portfolio
were ensured by selecting targets from each of the four stratigraphic units and within each
precipitation zone present within each of these units.
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