Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Disappearing forests in Southeast Asia

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Map above shows the extent of disappearing and degraded forests in Southeast Asia region.

Southeast Asia (SEA) is confronted with the highest deforestation rates in the world and increasing economic growth in the region further intensifies the pressure on these forests. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia are some countries that face the serious problems and consequences of deforestation.

Indonesia has observed the removal of large tracts of its forests. In the 1950s, more than 85% of the country were constituted of forested lands and it is dropped to below 47% at present day. Main areas subject to deforestation include Jambi, South Sumatra, West and Central Kalimantan, Riau and Papua of East Indonesia. However, there is inability to produce accurate maps to show the exact extent of forests that succumb to deforestation due to factors such as incomplete information obtained from theimage local provinces, inaccessibility of the remote and rugged terrain, and heavy cloud cover that persists throughout the year which does not permit clear satellite imageries to be obtained. Deforestation in Indonesia kick-started in the 1960s when the timber exporting industry was seen as a sector that was capable of reaping in profits within a short period of time. Illegal logging soon become out of control. The onset of the late 1990s saw the clearance of around 3 million hectares (ha) of forested lands annually. Attempts to curb or ameliorate deforestation was an uphill task given the decentralised approval of land permits and corruption issues that hindered the cracking down on deforestation. Lax law enforcement aggravated the problem further.Deforestation also brought about a series of concomitant environmental and social problems. With the destruction of their natural habitats, the population of orang utans in Borneo fell by more than 50% over the past 50 years and those currently found in Sumatra was only 20% of that 75 years ago. Certain deforested lands saw increased instances of flooding as these lands which had been cleared to give way to plantations had lower water retention capacity relative to forest trees. Furthermore, mass logging undertaken by timber and oil palm companies have displaced the Orang Rimba people who live in Sumatra’s Jambi forest. Despite initiatives to conserve forests via the Untied Nations scheme known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd),the success of such an initiatives remains doubtful and the people are struggling to comprehend the operations of such a scheme. In addition, it is an imperative to have an institutional framework, legislations and decision community to be formed to determine the groups who are able to enjoy the financial incentives upon the conservation of forest lands.

The Philippines banned timber harvesting on February 1, 2011image to prevent detrimental consequences of logging, which include flooding and landslides. Such a move came in response to the weeks of torrential rain that emptied in the region, causing severe floods and forcing more than 1 million people into evacuation centres and damaged $35 million worth of crops and property. The Philippines is the fourth most threatened forest lands. Since the 1950s, it possessed 15 million ha of forests, which made up 50% of its land mass. However, by 1997, there were only 5.4 million ha. The initiation of reforestation programmes raised the amount of forested lands to 7.2 million ha. Logging is now only lawful in plantations, which cover 300,000 ha of forested land. The profitable nature and expansion of industries involving furniture and woodcrafts led to increased deforestation rates. There is substantial evidence pointing to deforestation being responsible for landslides and flooding incidences over the years. In November 1991, flash floods took more than 6,000 lives when the the Filipino town of Ormon had debris such as logs and shipping containers packed with cut timber flushed down a mountainside. Enforcing the ban on logging in natural forests would be a challenge, given the problem of serious shortage of forest rangers, with only one ranger patrolling 4,000 ha of forested land. The wood industry disapproves of the ban and warned against high numbers of job losses as about 650,000 people are engaged in wood processing activities, given the nation’s growing dependence on timber imports.  

Malaysia has been suffering from landslides due to the felling of trees as tonnes of logs were flushed into Sarawak rivers in a landslip in 2010. This led to the Rajang River being impassable for several days. Satellite images revealed that large swathes of peatland were converted into oil palm plantations. Around 10% of Sarawak’s land is made up of peatland. Peatland refers to wetlands with soil comprised of organic matter and it is permanently waterlogged. image Clearance of peatlands is an area of serious concern as they release large amounts of carbon dioxide and bring about global warming. Malaysia is the world’s second largest producer of oil palm after Indonesia and it is responsible for the production of around 40% of global oil palm supplies and the industry is valued at S$25 billion. Around 20% of Malaysia’s oil palms sits on peatland but that in Sarawak is made up of 44%. Reduced availability of land in Peninsular Malaysia led to the housing of oil palm plantations in Sarawak, East Malaysia, which sees the strong growth of oil palm companies being established. Drained peatland is also easily combustible during dry periods, making it a fire hazard and a contributor to haze in the SEA region. Besides global warming concerns, peatlands is home to a rich diversity of flora an fauna species, causing the urgent need to conserve these lands. Peat land forests in Malaysia houses significant numbers of endangered species such as the Borneo pygmy forest, the Sumatran rhino and the Bornean clouded leopard. Waters of these peat swamps have the highest numbers of freshwater fish species in the need. Hence, clearance of peatlands would further threaten the survival of these species, drawing the attention of many conservationists.

 


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