The carbon storage and conservation value of old-growth tropical forests is clear, but the value of logged forest is less certain. Here we analyse[100,000 observations of individuals from 11 taxonomic groups and [2,500 species, covering up to 19 years of post-logging regeneration, and quantify the impacts of logging on carbon storage and biodiversity within lowland dipterocarp forests of Sabah, Borneo. We estimate that forests lost ca. 53% of above-ground biomass as a result of logging but despite this high level of degradation, logged forest retained considerable conservation value: floral species richness was higher in logged forest than in primary forest and whilst faunal species richness was typically lower in logged forest, in most cases the difference between habitats was no greater than ca. 10%. Moreover, in most studies [90% of species recorded in primary forest were also present in logged forest, including species of conservation concern. During recovery, logged forest accumulated carbon at five times the rate of natural forest (1.4 and 0.28 Mg C ha -1 year -1 , respectively). We conclude that allowing the continued regeneration of extensive areas of Borneo's forest that have already been logged, and are at risk of conversion to other land uses, would provide a significant carbon store that is likely to increase over time. Protecting intact forest is critical for biodiversity conservation and

Large areas of tropical forest now exist as remnants scattered across agricultural landscapes, and so understanding the impacts of forest fragmentation is important for biodiversity conservation. We examined species richness and nestedness among tropical forest remnants in birds (meta-analysis of published studies) and insects (field data for fruit-feeding Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and ants). Species -area relationships were evident in all four taxa, and avian and insect assemblages in remnants typically were nested subsets of those in larger areas. Avian carnivores and nectarivores and predatory ants were more nested than other guilds, implying that the sequential loss of species was more predictable in these groups, and that fragmentation alters the trophic organization of communities. For butterflies, the ordering of fragments to achieve maximum nestedness was by fragment area, suggesting that differences among fragments were driven mainly by extinction. In contrast for moths, maximum nestedness was achieved by ordering species by wing length; species with longer wings (implying better dispersal) were more likely to occur at all sites, including low diversity sites, suggesting that differences among fragments were driven more strongly by colonization. Although all four taxa exhibited high levels of nestedness, patterns of species turnover were also idiosyncratic, and thus even species-poor sites contributed to landscape-scale biodiversity, particularly for insects.

In Southeast Asia, large-scale conversion of rainforest to oil palm plantations is one of the major causes of biodiversity declines. Recommendations for reducing species losses and increasing the sustainability of palm oil production advocate the retention of natural forest patches within plantations, but there is little evidence for the effectiveness of this strategy. Here, we examine to what extent rainforest remnants with different characteristics contribute to biodiversity within surrounding plantations. We sampled ground-dwelling ants in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) using unbaited pit-fall traps along 1.km transects spanning forest-plantation ecotones of 10 forest fragments (area 5. ha-500. ha) and two continuous forest sites which bordered plantations. Ant species richness in plantations varied according to richness in adjacent forest fragments, which increased with fragment size. A trend of declining species richness in plantations with distance from the forest ecotone was consistent with spillover of forest species into plantations adjacent to forest remnants. Ant assemblages in plantations also contained more carnivorous species adjacent to large forest fragments, suggesting large fragments may have benefits for pest control in plantations, as well as benefits for local biodiversity. Our results indicate that large forest fragments support distinctive ant assemblages and increase diversity within the planted area, but small fragments (<~200. ha) contribute little to plantation diversity. Thus retaining large fragments of forest may help mitigate the loss of species within oil palm plantations.