Loss of biodiversity and resources due to forest exploitation and degradation

Malaysia's total natural forest area is about 18.4 million ha or 56% of the total land area. The tropical rainforest ecosystems are endowed with one of the richest terrestrial biodiversity in the world. Efforts to exploit and utilize the rich forest resources have been carried out in the country since 1896 through various regimes such as Regeneration Improvement Felling, Commercial Regeneration Felling, Malayan Uniform System and Selective Management System. Those systems have many disadvantages and advantages both to the forests and environment. Today the country practices the sustainable forest management to ensure forest exploitation and conservation go hand in hand. A total of 1.39 million ha (about 7.6%) of the forest of all types have been set aside for the conservation of forest biodiversity. It is hoped that these protected areas have captured most of the diverse species of plants and animals found in various forest ecosystems for ecosystem health. In Peninsular Malaysia, tree diversity is represented by about 2,850 species of trees hence the non-trees constitute more than 60%, while the fauna diversity is represented by more than 8,000 species, excluding that of the insects, the largest and more diverse single group. In the absence of concrete base-line data of forest biodiversity loss in the country it is difficult to ascertain the list of endangered or otherwise threatened plant and animal species due to past forest exploitation and degradation. However, efforts to assess and monitor this have been initiated through the recently incepted Biodiversity Country Study and the on-going Forest Biodiversity Scientific Expeditions. Many factors have contributed to forest biodiversity loss; among them is the rapid socio-economic development of the country that transformed the vast forested lands by logging activities, land openings for agriculture and resettlement and subsequently creating new built-up areas such as urban and industrial areas which are relatively poor in biodiversity. Other factors such as over-harvesting of agro-forestry products and pollution have also contributed to a small extent. These activities had led to significant habitat loss of the various categories of flora, ever decreasing biomass, forest fragmentation and ultimately primary productivity. To address these problems, Malaysia launched The National Policy on Biological Diversity in 1998 paving ways for sustainable forestry and conservation. Some examples of the effects of Regeneration Improvement Felling, Commercial Regeneration Felling, Malayan Uniform System and Selective Management System and salient features of forestry and forest products in terms of forest biodiversity would be discussed.