JAKARTA, Aug. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Five groups of the endangered Javan silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch), or Owa Jawa, have disappeared from the Kabandungan Forest, a lush corridor that connects Mount Salak and Mount Halimun in Sukabumi, West Java province, a park official said.

    "Illegal loggers have nearly cut down the entire corridor ... the small area of remaining forest is now isolated from the Kabandungan ecosystem," Mount Halimun National Park official Nur Faizin was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying on Saturday.

    In 1998, Faizin said five families of four to five Javan silvery gibbons lived in the forest corridor.

    "Maybe they died from the extreme change in their habitat, or were killed by hunters, or migrated to another location," he said.     

    Another Halimun park official Ika Kristiana warned the extinction of many flora and fauna, especially those as yet undiscovered in the forest, due to disappearance of the forest corridor.

    The Kabandungan corridor is vital to the preservation of the mountain ecosystems of Salak and Halimun, which are home to different animals and vegetation.

    "We believe the forest corridor linked the two ecosystems and enabled their endemic species to interact and expand their gene pools for better survival. Without this, species endemic to the mountains would disappear one by one," Ika asserted.

    The Ministry of Forestry placed Salak and Halimun under a single management last year, expanding the national park from 40,000 ha to 113,357 ha across Sukabumi and Bogor regencies of West Java and Lebak regency of Banten. The Kabandungan forest corridor is located in Lebak.

    In the next five years, Faizin said, the national park, along with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), would initiate a program rehabilitating the diminishing forest corridor.

    The park management and JICA are currently surveying the economic base of villagers living around the forest, establishing the park's border and involving locals in conservation programs.

    In addition, they are encouraging villagers to switch to farming to reduce their dependence on forests as their main sourceof income.

    "We are also receiving assistance from other (environmental groups) to rehabilitate the forest," Ika said.

    The twin ecosystem is also home to 16 different species of eagles, including the 18 Javan eagles spotted there, and eight remaining Javan silvery gibbon families that forage across 40,000 ha of the park.

    "We have found 40 panthers in the national park, each of which has a territory of 1,000 hectares," he said. Enditem