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The following are estimates for drivers of deforestation. Please note that this page will be updated as new data and analyses are published and become available. The causes of deforestation vary from region to region. In Latin America and Southeast Asia a majority of deforestation is today the result of industrial activities, notably cattle ranching in the Amazon and large-scale agriculture and intensive logging in Southeast Asia. Subsistence agriculture, often using slash-and-burn / fallow techniques, is the most important driver of forest loss in Africa. While net forest loss has remained relatively constant over the past twenty years, there have been two significant shifts since the late 1980s: (1) old-growth forests are being replaced by plantations and degraded, logged-over forests; and (2) forest clearing is increasingly driven by industry rather than subsistence activities. Controlling deforestation is imperative to addressing climate change. The annual destruction of 13 million hectares of forest accounts for nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, a greater share than all the world's trucks, cars, ships, and airplanes combined.Estimates based on HK Gibbs (2008):
Estimates from Project Catalyst (2008):
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Southeast Asia is known for its vast rainforests which constitute about almost 20 percent of forest cover with the richest biodiversity in the world. What the region is also known for is its alarming rate of deforestation. The region has the highest rate of deforestation of any major tropical region followed by Latin America and Africa. It is projected that the region has already lost more than 50 percent of its original forest cover and that some of the primary rainforests in the region will be lost by the year 2022 along with the loss of wildlife habitats. Deforestation is a major problem in the region with Indonesia leading the charts for forests clearing, followed by other hotspots such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Southeast Asia is a global biodiversity hotspot, but with over 600 million people living in the region, the pressures on that biodiversity are severe. Due to the increasing human population, the need for urban spaces has increased, thus governments have taken measures to clear more land in order to fulfil this growing demand. Another crucial factor of deforestation stems from a rapidly expanding demand followed by unchecked economic development. The forests in Southeast Asia are known to be a rich source of timber suitable for a variety of purposes, seeing as it is filled with tropical rainforests and diverse ecosystems. These forest resources are used as materials in the form of lumber products such as furniture, plywood, paper and pulp, or are used for energy in the form of wood fuel. Due to this, Southeast Asian countries are now faced with the problem of depleting their natural forest resources to meet global demands for timber. Other causes behind the worrying rate of deforestation include illegal logging and land clearing for agricultural activities. Governments are meant to regulate the production and the trade of timber products within an economy. However, there are always those who violate these laws by harvesting timber from protected areas or logging over the legal limit. Illegal logging endangers these forests that host a colossal number of valuable species and it also lowers prices of timber around the world. This will then affect companies that actually abide by these laws and poorer communities could be left vulnerable to being exploited. At the rate that this modern-day plague is going, it is obvious as to what the effects of deforestation are. “Deforestation and forest degradation…account for nearly 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector,” the UN REDD programme (United Nations Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) reported. What has ASEAN done and is currently doing to manage this issue at hand? In an e-mail correspondence with The ASEAN Post, Serina Abdul Rahman, Visiting Fellow of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, stated that “ASEAN nations have distinct and different ways of managing their forests – independent of ASEAN as an organisation. Most manage their forests through a forestry department – often at the expense of indigenous folk who might not have the paperwork to lay claim to their ancestral land.” She added that there is an ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, “but it was never formally agreed and enforced – overtaken by the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) which was ratified by all ASEAN countries. ASEAN is now a party to the CBD – which means technically it should agree to a target of at least 17 percent of protected inland areas by 2020. This figure is said to have already been exceeded by most of the ASEAN countries (except Singapore, Vietnam). Individual countries in ASEAN have pledged to establish systems of protected areas.” In terms of what ASEAN is currently doing to address the issue, she mentioned that the members have committed to the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to recognise the importance of forests in mitigating climate change. Some of the countries - Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam are already REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) partner countries. To conclude, Serina stated that it is important to monitor how or whether these public commitments and protocol will translate into any real action or movement on the ground, “especially as economics and national development tends to overcome any inclination to conserve biodiversity for the sake of biodiversity alone. To what extent sustainable development principles can truly be implemented in ASEAN will be what we need to look out for and monitor.”
Tropical forests in Southeast Asia The seasonal nature and pattern of Southeast Asia’s rainfall, as well as the region’s physiography, have strongly affected the development of natural vegetation. The hot, humid climate and enormous variety of habitats have given rise to an abundance and diversity of vegetative forms unlike that in any other area of the world. Much of the natural vegetation has been modified by human action, although large areas of relatively untouched land still can be found. The vegetation can be grouped into two broad categories: the tropical-evergreen forests of the equatorial lowlands and the open type of tropical-deciduous, or “monsoon,” forests in areas of seasonal drought. The evergreen forests are characterized by multiple stories of vegetation, consisting of a variety of trees and plants. Although a large diversity of tree species is found in these forests, members of the Dipterocarpaceae family account for roughly half of the varieties. Deciduous forests are found in eastern Indonesia and those parts of the mainland where annual rainfall does not exceed 80 inches. Just as in the equatorial forest, a wide variety of species is normally the rule. Certain species, such as teak, have become highly valued commercially. Teak is found in parts of Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. In addition to these two basic types of vegetation, other regional patterns reflect topography. Especially noteworthy are coastal and highland plant communities. Mangrove belts, of which there are more than 30 varieties, occur where silt is deposited in coastal areas. Upland forests dominated by maples, oaks, and magnolias are found especially on mainland mountain slopes. Human activity has been rapidly altering the stands of virgin forest in Southeast Asia. Most deforestation results from removal for fuelwood and clearing for agriculture and grazing. Although only a relatively small portion of the total land area has been permanently cleared for cultivation—e.g., in Java (Indonesia) and western Luzon (the Philippines)—in some areas shifting cultivation has brought about the replacement of virgin forest with secondary growth. In addition, nearly all countries have commercial logging industries; notable are those in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar. A growing problem has been illegal logging. Thus, timber harvesting has come to contribute significantly to deforestation. Programs in social forestry and reforestation have yet to halt the rapid denuding of the landscape.
education: Southeast Asia Indigenous culture, colonialism, and the post-World War II era of political independence influenced the forms of education in the nations... Southeast Asia is situated where two major divisions of the world’s fauna meet. The region itself constitutes the eastern half of what is called the Oriental, or Indian, zoogeographic region (part of the much larger realm of Megagaea). Bordering along the south and east is the Australian zoogeographic region, and the eastern portion of insular Southeast Asia—Celebes (Sulawesi), the Moluccas, and the Lesser Sunda Islands—constitutes a transition zone between these two faunal regions. Southeast Asia is notable, therefore, for a considerable diversity of wildlife throughout the region. These differences are especially striking between the species of the eastern and western fringes as well as between those of the archipelagic south and the mainland north. The differences stem largely from the isolation, over varying lengths of geologic time, of species following their migration from the Asian continent. In addition, the tropical rain forests in many parts of the region, with their great diversity of vegetation, have made possible the development of complex communities of animals that fill specialized ecological niches. Especially numerous are arboreal and flying creatures. orangutans The distinction between the two faunal regions is best depicted by their mammal populations. In general, Australia is inhabited largely by marsupials (pouched mammals) and monotremes (egg-laying mammals), while Southeast Asia contains placental mammals and such hybrid species as the bandicoot of eastern Indonesia. Small mammals such as monkeys and shrews are the most numerous, while in many areas the larger mammals have been pushed into more remote areas and national preserves. Bears, gibbons, elephants, deer, civets, and pigs are found in both mainland and insular Southeast Asia, as are diminishing numbers of tigers. The Malayan tapir, a relative of the rhinoceros, is native to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, while the tarsier is found in the Philippines and parts of Indonesia. A number of rare endemic species are found in Indonesia and East (insular) Malaysia, including the Sumatran and Javan rhinoceros, the orangutan, the anoa (a dwarf buffalo), the babirusa (a wild swine), and the palm civet. As the pace of development accelerates and populations continue to expand in Southeast Asia, concern has increased regarding the impact of human activity on the region’s environment. A significant portion of Southeast Asia, however, has not changed greatly and remains an unaltered home to wildlife. The nations of the region, with only few exceptions, have become aware of the need to maintain forest cover not only to prevent soil erosion but to preserve the diversity of flora and fauna. Indonesia, for example, has created an extensive system of national parks and preserves for this purpose. Even so, such species as the Javan rhinoceros face extinction, with only a handful of the animals remaining in western Java. |
Two activities that contribute to deforestation in south and Southeast Asia include
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