Recording Borneo's biodiversity before Indonesia's new capital arrives
As Indonesia moves its capital from sinking Jakarta to a new city called Nusantara on Borneo, construction threatens one of the world's most biodiverse rainforests. Journalist Leah Varjacques accompanies scientists and Indigenous collaborators who are recording forest sounds to preserve ecological knowledge. The episode captures the urgency of documenting the habitat before it changes forever.
The relocation stems from Jakarta's severe subsidence, driven by decades of groundwater extraction from a colonial-era water system that left most residents reliant on wells. This pumping compacts the city's soft sediment, causing some areas to sink a foot annually, compounded by rising seas. The government's response is Nusantara, a planned green city on Borneo, but its construction directly threatens the rainforest's biodiversity.
To document this transition, researchers deploy durable acoustic recorders like the Swift units, capturing continuous soundscapes. Indigenous collaborators, such as Abidin, maintain these devices, swapping batteries and memory cards. Their work preserves ancestral ecological knowledge, with recordings intended for future generations, capturing the forest's inhabitants before construction permanently alters the habitat.
The construction of Nusantara could irreversibly alter Borneo's unique acoustic and biological landscape, affecting Indigenous communities who rely on this knowledge and global biodiversity. However, the recording initiative may provide a crucial baseline for future conservation efforts, potentially informing mitigation strategies. The transition may also reshape local livelihoods and cultural practices, though the long-term ecological consequences remain uncertain.