LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
BIODIVERSITY LOSS A CAUSE FOR ALARM
(Image credits: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-palmoil-deforestation-idUSKCN1VD0CR)
The recent report that a total of 567 plant species
out of the 1,600 Peninsular Malaysia plant species assessed in the Malaysia Red
List have been classified as threatened should be a cause for alarm.
Malaysia’s tree cover, which stands at approximately 55.3%,
obscures the alarming reality of biodiversity loss in Malaysia, but the fact
remains that tree cover is not the same as natural forest cover. Most of
Malaysia’s tree cover consists of plantations and degraded forest land. Plantations
do not have the same biodiversity value and cannot provide the same ecosystem
services as natural forests. Intact and biodiverse forests protect watersheds
and water quality, are more resistant to fire and drought, regulate climate and
weather patterns, and provide habitat for a wide range of flora and fauna.
Biodiversity ensures food security, as a biodiverse
ecosystem will provide genetic resources for a variety of food, including those
that are resistant to fungi and diseases that may wipe out cultivated strains
of crops. Keeping forests intact and biodiverse prevents wild species from
crossing into human habitation and spreading both known and new diseases to
domestic animals and humans, and thus protect biosecurity. Approximately 50,000
to 70,000 plant species are used by humans for traditional and modern medicine
worldwide. Biodiversity loss will limit the discovery of potential new medicines
and medical treatments.
Humans rely on the ecosystem services such as the
supply of clean air and water provided by healthy and biodiverse ecosystems. The
National Water Resources Study 2000-2050 warns that Kedah, Kuala Lumpur,
Melaka, Penang, Perlis, Putrajaya, and Selangor are at risk of water deficits,
partly due to the loss of vital water catchment areas, and partly due to poor
water management systems and habits.
The UN FAO reports that only 18.7% of forests in
Malaysia is classified as primary forest, the most biologically diverse and
carbon-dense ecosystem, and that only 11.6% of the forests in Malaysia is
classified as ‘pristine’.
Malaysia is rapidly losing forested areas to
agriculture and development, and state governments continue to degazette forest
reserves and issue logging permits with impunity. The requirement that states
gazette replacement sites for degazetted reserves does nothing to turn the tide
of biodiversity loss. States are running out of suitable sites to gazette as
replacement forest reserves, and further, the gazettement of secondary forests
and degraded land cannot be a substitute for the protection of natural and
intact forests.
Google’s global forest map reveals that between 2000
and 2012, Malaysia had the world’s highest deforestation rate at 14.4%. Satellite
data from the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-lite platform shows that over
80% of the rainforests in East Malaysia have already been logged.
Between 2000 and 2009, over 9,000 hectares of
Permanent Forest Reserves were degazetted in Malaysia, threatening watersheds
and carbon sequesters, and destroying flora and fauna including those
classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The degazettement of
the Bikam Permanent Forest Reserve in 2013 caused the extinction of the Keruing
Paya, a critically endangered hardwood tree, in Peninsular Malaysia.
The best way to mitigate biodiversity loss is by
protecting existing forests. One of the main problems why forest conservation
is so challenging in Malaysia is that the Federal Constitution gives states
jurisdiction over their land, water, and forests. Forestry revenue accrues to
the state government and not to the federal government, and as such, forests and
extraction-based industries such as logging and mining are a major source of
revenue for state governments seeking short-term gain.
Government agencies set up to manage forests see
forests not as sensitive ecosystems to be protected, but as resources for
socioeconomic development. However, the
economic benefits of logging and mining are short-lived and can sustain only
1-2 generations at most. State governments
stand to lose more from the loss of forests and the ecosystem services they provide.
Droughts, floods, soil erosion, landslides, and health crises such as dengue
and malaria outbreaks will all cost the state and federal governments more in
the long run. We need to stop relying on commodity crops and extraction-based
industries as our primary source of revenue. If we build a knowledge and skills-based
economy and stop relying on monoculture crops and extraction-based industries
as our country’s primary source of revenue and jobs, we can find better ways of
sustaining our economy.
We need to rid ourselves of the mentality that the
loss of threatened tree species does not affect us, or that it can be rectified
through tree-planting campaigns and gazetting degraded land as replacement forest
reserves. Tree-planting campaigns, habitat restoration, the setting up of seed
banks, and environmental education for the younger generation, all take time to
bear results. And time is a luxury that threatened species do not have. Biodiversity
is not merely something that is nice to have, but essential to the survival of
humanity and a living planet.
WONG
EE LYNN
PETALING
JAYA, SELANGOR
