Causes of deforestation in Southeast Asia

After four billion years of organic evolution on this planet, life reached its greatest diversity and complexity in the tropical rain forest (Sponsel et al., 1996). Yet in recent decades this diversity has become endangered. This is due to the deforestation that has been at work for centuries and the rate of deforestation in the tropics is still increasing rapidly. According to Repetto, the current rate of deforestation has exceeded 0.4 hectares per second (Sponsel et al., 1996), and each hectare may contain millions of species. There are more and more species extinction from year to year. Thus, deforestation has become one of the major environmental issues that directly affect not only countries and locations, but also the earth as a whole. In general, we can classify the causes of the deforestation into three main groups, which are the timber industry, agriculture development or expansion and major development projects that are implemented by the local government.

Firstly, according to the UN’s Economics and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), “Logging is undoubtedly the primary cause of degradation and indirectly of deforestation too (Sponsel et al., 1996).” Logging for export is a major factor of deforestation in Southeast Asia and it has been playing a significant role in Southeast Asian nations economic development. For example, in 1985, Malaysia, which was the largest exporter of tropical hardwood logs, exported 11.4 million cubic meters of logs (Sponsel et al., 1996). The revenue that was brought into Malaysia from this exported timber reached the value of RM1.6 billion (US$650 million) in 1985 (Hurst, 1990). The high revenue potential leads to illegal logging, which further destroys the forest area. Even though the Malaysia government has implemented a number of regulations to control logging operations, the timber extraction is still dominated by economic consideration. Thus, due to the economy benefit, logging is just a first step in the chain reaction of deforestation.

Secondly, the agriculture expansion is another major cause of forest clearance. Rural population growth and the promotion of cash crops for export are the underlying causes of demand for new land. As the population grows, large numbers of people will be seeking farming land and moving to the cities. For example, in Malaysia, forest clearance for agriculture development has been co-ordinate by the federal government’s Federal Land Development Agency (FELDA) since independence (Hurst, 1990). The main purpose of FELDA is to help provide land for the landless. They provide large areas of rubber estates or even now oil palm plantations to the landless as an agribusiness or commercial agriculture. The FELDA policies have created job opportunities for more than 500,000 people (Hurst, 1990). According to Marcoux (2000, June), oil palm plantations are a major catalyst of deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia. These two world’s biggest palm oil producers had about 6.7 million hectares of oil palm plantation in 2002 (Marcoux, 2000). Hence, the rapid expansion of agriculture will further clear-cut the forest and there will be one day when Malaysia is running out of land.

Thirdly, some major development projects that are implemented by the local government or some private agencies also contribute to the deforestation. The expansion of the road network is one such project that provides a significant effect to the forest. For example, the North-South Expressway (NSE) in Malaysia which is the longest expressway in Malaysia running from Bukit Hitam in Kedah to Johor Bahru in south Malaysia, opened up millions of kilometers of previously inaccessible forest to link up many major cities in western Peninsular Malaysia, acting as a ‘backbone’ of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Another development project is dam construction. For example, some of the largest dams that have been constructed in Thailand like Bhumibol (318 sq. km); Khao Leam (353 sq. km); Sirikit (260 sq. km); Sirindhorn (292 sq. km); Srinagarind (419 sq. km) and Ubolratana (410 sq. km) have collectively led to a total of 2052 sq, km of forest loss due to a deforestation (Hurst, 1990). The surface areas indicate how much forest has been destroyed. The construction of such dams also causes farmers to lose their lands, and as a result, the government needs to provide resettlement programs to find new lands for them. In the end, more forests will be clear-cut. Thus, these unavoidable rural development projects have brought a great “pain” to the forest, which is still being attacked.

In conclusion, as the population increases with the demand for land, a degree of forest destruction is inevitable. Furthermore, the timber industry, agriculture development and major development projects that are implemented by the governments have directly caused the deforestation. Thus, there is a need to consider the development solutions of the crisis in the social, environmental, economic and political aspects, or else it will bring serious consequences to the environment and human.

References

Hurst, P. (1990). Rainforest politics: Ecological destruction in

Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books Ltd.

Marcoux, A. (2000, June). Population and the environment: a review

and concepts for population programmes. Retrieved

March 9, 2008 from United Nations, Food and And Organization

Website:

http://www.fao.org/sd/wpdirect/wpan0050/htm

Sponsel, L. E., Thomas, N., & Bailey, R. C. (1996). Tropic

deforestation: The human dimension. New York:

Columbia University Press.