ARE WE PREPARED?
IN theory, logging may appear to be a sustainable activity and timber may appear to be a renewable resource. However, this is no longer the case in countries such as ours due to diminishing forests and the overexploitation of forests and forest products.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations reported that Malaysia saw a 60 per cent decline in log exports since 1980 due to the decline in harvestable forest products. Surely there are enough clear indicators that the overharvesting of timber and forest products in the short term will lead to a greater loss of potential earnings in the long run, while increasing the risk of environmental disasters.
Primary forests are complex and fragile ecosystems.
Once disturbed for logging, quarrying or agricultural activities, secondary forest species and recolonisers such as fast-growing climbing plants and epiphytes grow in the clearings created by human activity.
Over time, these recolonisers overtake the primary rainforest species in their numbers and affect the composition and biodiversity of a forest, changing its very nature and increasing the risk of mass extinction of thousands of species.
Disturbed and cleared rainforests, even if fortunate enough not to be clear-cut and converted into plantations, quarries or dams, end up becoming unproductive wastelands that are incapable of supporting wildlife or providing the same variety of ecosystem services, such as flood mitigation and carbon sequestration, as primary rainforests.
The reduced ability of a cleared or decimated forest to absorb solar energy and release water vapour leads to higher temperatures and a decline in rainfall.
The Greater Ulu Muda Forest, for instance, is a critical water catchment area for the northern states of Kedah, Perlis and Penang and supplies water to, among others, the Ahning, Muda and Pedu Dams. Ulu Muda further provides economic and sociocultural services which include ecotourism, the harvesting of forest products and a home for indigenous and rural communities.
According to the World wide Fund for Nature Malaysia, the Ulu Muda forest complex supplies as much as 96 per cent of Kedah’s, 50 per cent of Perlis’ and 80 per cent of Penang’s water supply. Ulu Muda also provides vital ecological services such as climate regulation, soil erosion prevention, biodiversity conservation and maintenance of soil, water and air quality.
The 2016 drought in northern Peninsular Malaysia is directly linked to logging activities in the Ulu Muda forest, which affected climate and water cycle patterns, resulting in a massive decline in dam water levels and a postponement of the padi planting season.
Logging in Ulu Muda would affect the survival and food and water security of a significant percentage of the population of northern Peninsular Malaysia. Are the authorities prepared to deal with the environmental and economic fallout of the deforestation of Ulu Muda?
As for the Belara Forest Reserve in Terengganu, this lowland tropical rainforest, which is home to Great Hornbills and other vulnerable and endangered species, was surreptitiously degazetted to make way for oil palm plantations. We can already foresee some of the immediate adverse impacts of the degazettement and deforestation.
Orchard owners whose fruit orchards surround the Belara Forest Reserve will see reduced yield and more contamination of soil and water due to the agricultural chemicals used in conventional oil palm cultivation.
When forests are cleared, malaria and dengue infections will rise. Landslides and flash floods will be a common occurrence, as ground cover crops are eliminated in monoculture plantations. Perhaps there will be another disastrous flood, more severe than the one that destroyed much of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia in the monsoon season of 2014 to 2015.
Do the authorities have plans to deal with increased human-wildlife conflict and water and food insecurity following deforestation, floods, drought and haze?