Southeast Asian Primates

Abstract

The Oriental Region (or Indo-Malayan Realm) comprises four subregions: Indian, Indo-Chinese, Sundaic, and Wallacean (Fig. 9.1). The main subject of this paper is the Sundaic subregion: the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra and their outliers; this is the wettest part of the region, and hence the part most densely forested. The evergreen rainforests here constitute ecosystems that are among the most complex in the world in terms of plant forms and species diversity, and of animal diversity and abundance. The conservation of these ecosystems is consequently complex, but their importance is global as well as local.