Malaysia’s forests face being ‘permanently lost’ due to vast concessions: climate watchdog report
- Malaysia has a long-standing commitment to maintain forest cover across 50 per cent of its territory, but that promise is at risk, a climate watchdog report said
- RimbaWatch said Malaysia is giving concessions in forested areas, and offering subsidies for timber plantations to make way for quick-growing cash crops
Vast concessions in Malaysia’s forests threaten millions of hectares of rich natural habitats and risk the country’s commitment to 50 per cent forest cover, a report warned on Tuesday.
NGO RimbaWatch said its analysis of concessions in the country’s forest showed up to 3.2 million hectares could be slashed, potentially unleashing enormous carbon emissions and compromising key animal habitats.
“Malaysia has consistently been establishing concessions in forested areas, leaving vast areas at risk,” said RimbaWatch director Adam Farhan.
“The Malaysian rainforest is millions of years old, and when it is lost, it is lost permanently,” he said.
Defining and delineating natural forest cover is complicated: some assessments categorise abandoned timber plantations or active palm oil plots as forest cover, while others only cover relatively untouched land.
So RimbaWatch used three different forest cover baselines for its research: one based on EU satellite data, one using official Malaysian data and one based on independent analysis by conservation start-up, The TreeMap.