WKU News & Events

May 7, 2002

WKU Graduate Student Part Of Project That Helped
Create National Park On Southeast Asian Island
Of Borneo

Bowling Green, Ky. - American cave expeditions that included a Western Kentucky University graduate student have resulted in the establishment of a new national park on the island of Borneo.

In April, the government of Sarawak, Malaysia, announced the establishment of a new national park at Gunung Buda (White Mountain) on Borneo in Southeast Asia. The decision occurred as a result of cave discoveries and surveys by four American cave exploring expeditions over the past few years.

Joel Despain, a graduate student in WKU's Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, organized and led the last expedition in 2000.

During the long-term project, Despain and other explorers surveyed, mapped and photographed the extensive cave systems with the ultimate goal of national park status for the jungle of Gunung Buda, he said.

The Borneo work has been part of Despain's graduate program with the Hoffman Institute, although his primary thesis research is taking place in the mountains of California's Sequoia National Park where he is employed as the park's cave specialist.

"The training I've received at Western has been a great benefit to me in my cave science research and other activities," said Despain, who lives in Three Rivers, Calif.

"This work highlights both the level of graduate students we are able to attract to the cave programs at WKU as well as the international experiences that these students are having in their programs," said Chris Groves, Despain's adviser and director of the Hoffman Institute.

The expeditions to Gunung Buda revealed many kilometers of large cave systems in the remote jungle area, and more passages likely await discovery. The expeditions also documented a rich and diverse surface ecosystem in the area's rain forests.

The mountain where the expeditions have taken place is a short distance to the northeast of Gunung Mulu National Park, famous for discoveries of huge cave passages and rooms since the 1980s, including the Sarawak Chamber, the world's largest known cave chamber with a volume of 20 million cubic meters.

On Despain's 2000 expedition to Gunung Buda, more than 20 kilometers of cave passages were explored, and the maps produced by the expeditions have been a major impetus that has caused the Sarawak government to protect this globally unique region, Groves said.

Despain, who has completed his graduate coursework, is conducting his thesis research and plans to graduate in spring 2003. He traveled to southern China last September as part of the Hoffman Institute's China science program and is planning to lead a major expedition there in January 2004, jointly organized by WKU and the Cave Research Foundation.

For more information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.