Our Forests, Our Living Treasure

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012. The Day commemorates and raises awareness about the importance of all types of forests. In recognition of this day, the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) emphasizes the importance of Malaysian forests as living treasures.

This year’s theme for IDF is “forests and foods,” which emphasizes the importance of forests in food security, nutrition, and livelihoods. Forests not only supply food, fuel, income, and work, but they also preserve soil fertility, safeguard water supplies, and serve as habitat for a variety of plants and animals. Forest-dependent communities, especially indigenous peoples, rely significantly on the forest to survive.

Malaysian rainforests contain a diverse range of plant and animal life, including roughly 200 mammal species (such as the rare Malayan tiger, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, Malayan tapir, gaur, and clouded leopard), over 600 bird species, and 15,000 plants. Thirty-five percent of these plant species are found nowhere else on the planet.

Forests play an important role in climate change mitigation because they store and absorb massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Forests also safeguard our water resources as well as support the livelihoods of forest dependent communities.

Despite the Malaysian Government’s pledge at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 to ensure that at least 50% of its land remains permanently under forest cover, Malaysia’s forest continues to be in a state of flux: from 7.86 million ha in 1966 (prior to the year when National Forestry Policy 1978 was adopted) to 6.5 million ha in 1984 (the year in which the National Forestry Act 1984 was enacted by Parliament), then increased immediately to 20.10 million ha in 1988, and fluctuated in hectarage between the years 1989 and 2010.

As a matter of record, the total forested area for 2011 was once again reduced to approximately 18.48 million ha. As a result, Malaysia can be classified as an HFHD (High Forest Cover with High Rates of Deforestation) country. The process of replacing degazetted forest reserves as required by the National Forestry Act 1984 (Amendment 1993) and/or creating new forest reserves to increase the figure beyond that of 2010 is rather slow.

Between 2001 and 2021, Malaysia experienced severe deforestation, losing 17% of its rainforest cover. According to TreeMap’s Nusantara Atlas, forest cover was already less than 47%. The most deforestation happened in Sarawak.

Malaysia’s rainforests face several threats, the major of which being clearance of forest land, and the expansion of human settlements has further imperilled the forests.  Logging and development of plantations in which clear felling of trees occur destroy forest habitats. Opening roads for the logging industry have resulted in poaching and illegal hunting of endangered wildlife. Mining is also common, with forest areas being cleared for the mines and road construction. Mining activities have polluted the land and rivers in some areas.

The opening up of land for commercial plantations such as palm oil plantations and food crop production has been detrimental to the survival of wildlife species.

Deforestation poses a severe threat to the fragile tropical rainforest ecosystem. The destruction of the forest will have serious consequences, including biodiversity loss and extinction concerns, increasing climate change, soil erosion and degradation, and potential human-wildlife conflict.

Forests are one of the world’s most important ecosystems, and in line with the IDF, CAP calls on all entities to improve forest protection, conservation and management practices, with a focus on restoring degraded areas and establishing critical forest corridors for wildlife to safely travel throughout their habitats. It is everyone’s responsibility to conserve forests for future generations.

Mohideen Abdul Kader
President
Consumers’ Association of Penang

Press Statement, 21 March 2025