【概　要】環境汚染や外来生物のもち込みにより，生物種が次々に絶滅の危機に瀕している．生物多様性

（biodiversity）が急速に失われつつある現在，それを食い止める方策が求められている．ここではボ

ルネオ（カリマンタン）で絶滅の危機に瀕しているピグミー象を例にあげて生物多様性を守るための

種々の活動が話される．

【本　文】Background: Jenny, a biochemistry student, and her younger brother, Steven, are talking about

biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia.

Steven: Jenny, maybe you can help me out with something I saw last night on TV.

Jenny: Sure, what do you want to know?

Steven: Well, it’s to do with the pygmy elephants in Borneo. Do you know about them?

Jenny: Yup, they’ve only recently been identified as a separate subspecies. I think it was by

researchers from Columbia University and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Anyway, they used DNA

biodiversity 生物多様性subspecies 亜種oil palm plantation オイルパームプランテーションedible oil 食用油habitat 生息地，生息場所

（biodiversity） hotspot 生物多様性のホットスポット

green corridor 緑の回廊fragmented habitat 分断化された生息地migration route 移動ルートPR （public relations） 広報活動，宣伝native 天然の，自然のice-age 氷河期，氷河時代

◆ 覚えておきたいキーワードとフレーズ ◆（VOCABULARY PRE-TEST/KEYWORDS AND PHRASES）

Chapter 8

Biodiversity Loss

Fruit of the oil palm, Elaeis guineensisThe tree is native to central Africa, and was introduced into Southeast Asia in 1910. A cluster of fruit like those shown above can weigh 50 kg.

98　◆　PART 2　Biomass

analysis to establish they are distinct from other Asian elephants.

Steven: I knew I could count on you! Anyway, according to the program, the Borneo elephants are

losing their land. It said that people are destroying the forests they live in, and replacing them with

oil palm plantations. It said that there’s now something like 4 million hectares of plantations.

Jenny: That sounds about right. Something like 80% of the world’s palm oil is produced in Indonesia

and Malaysia.

Steven: So what I want to know is: what is all that palm oil used for?

Jenny: All sorts of things! It’s the second-most produced edible oil, after soybean oil. It’s used in

margarine, shortening, candies, and all kinds of food items. You know mom’s soap in the upstairs

bathroom? That’s made from palm oil, too.

Steven: Well, that explains some of its popularity. But I think the program was trying to get at

something different – a new trend.

Jenny: Ah, that would probably be its use as a kind of bio-diesel. Palm oil is a good fuel. For a poor

farmer with a family to feed in Indonesia or Malaysia, burning down some forest and planting oil

palms in its place looks very attractive, economically, given the high price of fuel oil.

Steven: That makes sense now. Every time an oil palm plantation goes up, it means more jungle is

destroyed.

Jenny: Yes, jungle habitat is particularly valuable in terms of biodiversity – so many different

species live there. That’s why they’re called hotspots. In Borneo it’s not just elephants that have to

worry about habitat loss, it’s orangutans, Proboscis monkeys, and thousands of other species. Palm

oil plantations don’t support much wildlife.

Steven: So what’s being done about it?

Jenny: Well, there’s a group called the Borneo Conservation Trust that is trying to preserve jungle

habitat in Sabah in northern Borneo, where the elephants live. And just as important as preserving

bits of land is linking them together to make “green corridors”, since isolated refuges aren’t very

useful when most species need to roam. They look for sponsors to buy land from plantation owners to

reconnect fragmented habitats. Palm oil is profitable, so the land doesn’t come cheap. For example,

they have teamed up with Saraya, a Japanese soap and detergent company, to buy up land along a

■ They used DNA analysis to establish they are distinct from other Asian elephants.

distinct = 特異性 cf. different

■ It’s the second-most produced edible oil, after soybean oil.

It is the X, after Y = ～に次いで…番目だ．■ Just as important as preserving bits of land is linking them together to make “green corridors”, since isolated

refuges aren’t very useful when most species need to roam.

■ Now we know they are genetically distinct, and worthy of protection in their own right.

◆ ピックアップセンテンス ◆KEY SENTENCES

Chapter 8　Biodiversity Loss　◆　99

jungle river that is used as a migration route. It’s good PR for the company.

Steven: I hope the elephants get some of their land back soon.

Jenny: Me too. Borneo pygmy elephants are particularly intriguing, because people thought they had

just been brought over from Sumatra or India, even though they are smaller, but with bigger ears.

Now we know they are genetically distinct, and worthy of protection in their own right. But there is

still a mystery about them. Some researchers think they are native to Borneo, isolated there since

the last ice-age. But a recent theory says that they were introduced just a few hundred years ago,

from Java. But elephants are extinct in Java now, so the Borneo elephants may actually be the last

living examples of the Javan elephant!

A Borneo ElephantImage taken from: （2003） Borneo Elephants: A High Priority for Conservation. PLoS Biol 1 （1）: e7 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0000007