Fun with biodiversity, spectacular insects attracted to light at night, Deramakot Forest, Borneo

The 22nd May is the UN International Day for Biodiversity https://www.cbd.int/idb/, #IDB, a celebration of all life on Earth - its diversity and inter-connections. A few years ago I had the good fortune to visit Deramakot Forest Reserve in Sabah, Malaysia, and found the porch of my accommodation to be literally crawling, and fluttering, with nocturnal #biodiversity attracted by the light.
Borneo was once clothed in tropical #rainforest, much of which has been cleared in recent decades and replaced by plantations for rubber, paper-pulp or palm-oil. We had to drive for hours through endless ranks of oil palms to get to Deramakot, so the forest came as a relief. Although we witnessed trees being felled in Deramakot, the Sabah Forestry Department aims for sustainable forestry and uses reduced impact logging (though seeing a mature tree crash to the ground certainly had an impact on me!). In 1997, Deramakot became the first #FSC-certified forest in the Asia-Pacific region, and it remains a good example of a production forest that has maintained its biodiversity, and has now diversified into ecotourism. This means that after the #Covid19 #pandemic, you too could experience what video No.65 in the #BrightenYourDay series demonstrates: the sheer delight a naturalist feels when confronted with so many amazing life-forms! The video is unedited, and some of what you see here would normally end up in out-takes, but I have posted it uncut because it conveys the fun of the moment - hope you enjoy it... but do you recognise the voices off?

#FSC = Forest Stewardship Council, the gold standard of certification schemes for timber and paper products.

Видео Fun with biodiversity, spectacular insects attracted to light at night, Deramakot Forest, Borneo канала Ian Redmond