Vaudine England – The survival of several animals key to global biodiversity – the Sumatran tiger, the Asian elephant and the orang-utan – have been put at risk by Indonesia's disappearing forests. Illegal logging and ignorance about the long-term costs are now destroying those habitats at greater speed than ever.

"The important point to remember for any conservation of the nice furry animals here is that what matters is their habitat. When they lose that, they lose their ability to feed and procreate and survive," an international forestry expert said yesterday.

In a report just published in the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the authors highlight Indonesia's failure to achieve the kind of integrated conservation management regimes which are "crucially important for the continued survival of Asian megafauna such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Sumatran tiger and the Asian elephant".

In Indonesia's central island group of Sulawesi, the challenge to rare species of flora and fauna is intense, with far-reaching consequences for Earth's animal diversity. A tectonic clash about 40 million years ago has produced a mixing of plants and animals to create a biological transitional zone between Asia and Australasia called Wallacea.

This gives Sulawesi one of the highest levels of species endemism in the world. Studies by Robert Lee, head of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Sulawesi project, and Suparman Rais, head of Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park in Sulawesi, say the risks to wildlife are increasing by the day. The Bogani park is probably the last great stronghold for rare and threatened species of birds and mammals.

Sulawesi masked owls, hornbills, parrots, the babirusa "pig-deer" and macaque monkeys are among those facing possible extinction. Along with the ugly, grey and hairless babirusa, the grumpy goat-sized buffalo called the anoa, and two cuscus species of marsupials roam the park. Blue-helmeted maleo birds dig pits near hot springs or on beaches to lay their gigantic eggs.

"Unfortunately, many of these species are quickly disappearing from forests throughout Sulawesi," Dr Lee said. "Large mammals including babirusa, anoa and macaques are hunted for the meat market in eastern North Sulawesi." As in the forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan, Sulawesi's problems start with illegal logging, mining and hunting. Staff responsible for managing national parks are poorly trained and schemes are rarely implemented.