Deforestation in Malaysia

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This image reveals the overall extent of land-cover change throughout the region. Deforestation in Malaysian Borneo.jpg
This image reveals the overall extent of land-cover change throughout the region.

Deforestation in Malaysia is a major environmental issue in the country. British colonial deforestation efforts began in 1880 and were rapidly driven by commercial rubber and palm oil cultivation.

Contents

Between 1990 and 2010, Malaysia lost an estimated 8.6% of its forest cover, or around 1,920,000 hectares (4,700,000 acres). [1] Logging and land clearing has particularly been driven by the palm oil sector. World Bank policies in the 1970s encouraged palm oil expansion and the IMF’s bailout package, following the 1998 economic crisis, incentivised the expansion of palm plantations. However, as a megadiverse country, efforts have been made to conserve Malaysia's forests and reduce the rate of deforestation.

Background

British colonial deforestation efforts accelerated from 1880, driven by commercial rubber and palm oil cultivation and investment under the lobbying of English botanist, Henry Ridley. The extreme deforestation directly led to the Great Flood in December 1926. To a certain extent responses to the flood curbed the intensity of industrial-level deforestation. However, by the 1920s over 2.1 million acres of land had been deforested by the Empire in Malaya [2] .

Malaysia declared its independence from Britain in 1957, and formed its current state in 1963. [3] Since then, it has seen significant economic growth, a large part of which can be attributed to its forest industry. [4] Malaysia's rapid rate of development has put it far ahead of several of its neighbours, such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. This has largely been in part to its abundance of natural resources, which constitutes significant portions of the country's economic sector. Because of this large financial gain from logging, production has been high since initiation, and it was not until 1985 that consequences were first realised. [4]

Economics

Oil palm plantations in Sarawak, Malaysia Oil palm plantations in Sarawak.jpg
Oil palm plantations in Sarawak, Malaysia

Malaysia has received considerable financial gain from its logging industry. One statistic states this benefit is valued at US$2,150,000,000. Together with neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia produces 85% of the global supply of palm oil, the chief cause of logging. [5] Additionally, the agriculture sector accounts for 14.5% of the labour force – more than 1 in 7 persons. [1] 56.6% of Malaysia's tropical forests are used for production, leaving the rest for uses such as 'Protection' and 'Conservation'. [1]

Impacts

Forest Landscape Integrity Index map of Malaysia for 2019. FLII Malaysia.png
Forest Landscape Integrity Index map of Malaysia for 2019.

Consequences have been varied across different parts of Malaysia. [6] However, all areas have suffered some effect from deforestation. Four of the most prominent include:

Conservation efforts

In Malaysia, the World Bank estimates that trees are being cut down at 4 times the sustainable rate. [7] Logging does not have to be as destructive a practice as it currently is in Malaysia. In the past 2 decades, Malaysia has moved towards diversifying its economy, but logging still draws in many because of poor regulation and high profit. The most effective way to combat the negative effects of logging would be tighter regulation that still allows high production of palm oil, but in a more sustainable manner. This way, not only will the effects be mitigated now, but there will be more forests to log, and thus profits to make, in the future.

As of 2013, Malaysia still has a relatively high forest coverage percentage. It was estimated that 59.9% of the total area is covered by forests, [10] of which, a sizeable portion are untouched virgin forests (see old-growth forests) which dates back to around 130 million years.

An increase in the level of awareness of Malaysians compounded with the local folk belief that existed in the indigenous populations (see Semai people) has added to the strength of the many Malaysian movements in environmentalism. The Malaysian Nature Society is active in advocating protection of forest. Other organisations such as the Tabung Alam Malaysia, a branch of the World Wide Fund For Nature has also established offices in Malaysia since 1972 dedicated to nature conservation as well as education on the importance of forest conservation to the wider populace. The Forest Research Institute Malaysia has also been actively conducting research on the biodiversity of Malaysia's forests as well as in conservation.

Current issues

The opposition in Pahang linked illegal logging to the damage caused by the 2020–2021 Malaysian floods. [11] The state government denied this link, but ordered all logging halted during the monsoon season. [12]

Deforestation in the following areas/ project sites have attracted controversy:[ citation needed ]

Terengganu
Pahang
Johor
Kelantan
Perak
Selangor

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pahang</span> State in Malaysia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taman Negara</span> National park in Malaysia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batek people</span> Group of Malaysian indigenous people

The Batek people are an indigenous Orang Asli people ; belonging to the Semang group, who live in the rainforest of peninsular Malaysia. As a result of encroachment, they now primarily inhabit the Taman Negara National Park. The Batek are nomadic hunters and gatherers, so the exact location of their settlements change within the general confines of the area that they inhabit.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lanchang</span> Town in Pahang, Malaysia

Lanchang or so called Semantan is a small town in Temerloh District, Pahang, Malaysia, located 32 km (19.883878152 mi) from the town of Temerloh and has a total population of 38,473, with a density of 41,000 km2, from the census results of the Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia Negeri Pahang in 2020.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Sri Lanka</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental issues in Malaysia</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environment of Malaysia</span> Megadiverse ecology with rainforests and ocean

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Indonesia</span>

Deforestation in Indonesia involves the long-term loss of forests and foliage across much of the country; it has had massive environmental and social impacts. Indonesia is home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world and ranks third in number of species behind Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Borneo</span> Deforestation

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Myanmar</span>

According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Myanmar lost 19%, or 7,445,000 hectares, of forest between 1990 and 2010. With forest covering as much as 70% of Burma at the time of independence, there were only slightly more than 48% forest cover left as of 2014. The deforestation rate of Myanmar has declined from 0.95% per year in the years 1990–2010 to about 0.3% per year and deforestation in Myanmar is now less than other countries of the region such as Indonesia or Vietnam, but still remains an important environmental issue. Three main factors contribute to continued deforestation: unsustainable and illegal logging, unresolved land rights and land disputes and extensive agricultural development.

References

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