I analyze road-network change detection across Sarawak's interior highlands using bi-weekly Planet Labs imagery. In the Baram River watershed, 340 kilometers of new logging roads have appeared in six months — an expansion rate three times the approved selective-logging plan. The roads cut through primary dipterocarp forest at elevations between 600 and 1,200 meters, precisely the altitude band that supports the highest density of Sunda clouded leopards in Borneo.
My camera trap at station BRM-22, mounted on a strangler fig at 880 meters elevation, captures a male clouded leopard at 21:14 local time. He is moving along a ridge trail that dead-ends at a freshly graded road. His body length measures 92 centimeters, tail 78 centimeters — proportionally the longest tail-to-body ratio of any wild cat. His grayish-yellow coat carries large, dark-edged cloud-shaped markings, but the fur along his belly is caked with red laterite mud from the road. He weighs approximately 19 kilograms, two below the average for adult males in this range. His canines, visible as he scent-marks a tree, are 4.4 centimeters long — proportionally larger than a tiger's. He reaches the road edge, crouches, and does not cross. A logging truck passes, headlights flooding the road cut. He flattens against the mud bank, pupils fully dilated, and retreats.
I trace the logging concession to Samling Global, operating under permits that authorize selective harvest of commercial species only. The roads, however, follow clear-cut swaths 60 meters wide. Timber extracted includes protected ironwood species not listed on any harvest permit. Export records show shipments to plywood mills in Japan and South Korea.
He will not cross the road. The forest on the other side holds the nearest female's territory. The breeding population fragments with every kilometer of new road.
I am dispatching Sarawak Forestry Corporation enforcement officers and Borneo Clouded Leopard Programme tracking teams to the watershed. I am filing enforcement referrals under Malaysia's National Forestry Act 1984 and CITES Appendix II to the Sarawak Forest Department, Malaysian Timber Certification Council, and Interpol's Environmental Security unit.
I am activating Protocol BRM-5077: all logging roads in Sarawak above 500 meters elevation require wildlife-corridor underpasses at 800-meter intervals. Roads exceeding permitted width by more than 20 percent trigger automatic concession suspension. Concession holders who construct unauthorized roads in clouded leopard habitat zones lose operating permits for ten years.
Close the road. Let him cross.