In the northern corner of Borneo lies the Maliau Basin, a huge crater-shaped landform surrounded by a steep mountain rim and covered by a dense tropical rainforest. The basin remains one of the world’s last true wildernesses. It has never been permanently settled by humans and only became known to the outside world in 1947, when a British pilot nearly crashed his plane into the cliffs of the basin’s northern rim. Here, deep in the rainforests in the basin, stands an 89.5m tall Yellow Meranti tree. For five months in 2016 it held the title of the tallest tree in the tropical latitudes. This is the story of how I helped measure it. Continue reading →