Geographically Borneo, the world's third largest island, is way out there. Between the South China and Java Seas, its quadrants are unfamiliar to most Westerners. Over the years, however, a few have managed to stumble across her lucrative paths. The white man's history in Borneo is very recent and very typical. The island has been a hotspot of plunder by the usual plunderers from around the world for the last century.

The Chinese came first, in the late 1800's, for rhinoceros horn. As an aphrodisiac, of course. What else would you do with a rhino's horn? After they killed all the rhino, they settled for bird's nest to make soup (for real). This practice continues today, though the harvest is somewhat regulated and carried out by locals, a modest improvement over the past. After the Chinese came the Brits, and the beginning of the end for the island's tropical hardwood forests. In the last half of the 20th century the Americans finally came on board, plundering what they plunder best, oil and natural gas. Many mansions in the U.S. were built with wealth from Borneo.

The big island today is politically divided by Indonesia and Malaysia, and they are the biggest plunderers of all, especially the fat cat scoundrels in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. The story is a desperate one for Borneo's incomparable lowland rain forests, home to most of the island's biodiversity, including elephants, orangutans, and native people. Scientists warn of "dire consequences" from the "current state of resource anarchy," as the forests fall at a clip of two million acres a year. At this rate the Texas sized island will soon be totally deforested, having been stripped bare in less than half a century! (next photo)