This book describes the course of the modern transformation of Borneo and the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula, an area considered to be "environmentally critical" because of the massive deforestation that has taken place since the 1960s. The book begins with a description of the natural environment and its dynamics, and then reviews the considerable changes that occurred before the modern period. Against this background, the authors examine the changes since World War II and, in the course of several chapters, analyse the question of possible environmental endangerment in relation to the timber-based industries, bio-diversity, transmigrants and other settlers, the indigenous shifting cultivators, possible consequences of deforestation for global warming, and the townspeople who now form a significant part of the population. Drought and fire, and the creation of grasslands are also topics of discussion.
The conclusions are mixed, and indicate that the greatest dangers arise from national policies that continue to treat this region as a"resource frontier" despite the growing resource scarcity.