WWF report highlights seriousness of forest loss

KUALA LUMPUR: The Covid-19 crisis is believed to have opened the door for radical changes that are essential to safeguard our forests and help prevent the next pandemic.

Tropical forest regions that experience land-use change are more prone to forest loss and if this is allowed to continue, prevention of future pandemics may not be a realistic option. Our approach to forests, therefore, has to change for the better, and as governments create policies to address the economic and social impacts of the global pandemic, there is an equally pressing need to confront issues of over-consumption and put greater value on health and nature. This is humanity's best interests.

As part of its efforts to bring to light the seriousness of forest loss, WWF recently launched the Deforestation fronts: Drivers and responses in a changing world report which provides an in-depth analysis of deforestation hotspots.

Referred to as deforestation fronts in the report, these hotspots are remaining parts of large forests of global importance that are under threat.

The report reveals that an area roughly twice the size of the UK was lost to deforestation globally in just over a decade.

While Borneo is among the 24 countries identified as a deforestation hotspot in the report, it is crucial to know that the numbers attributed to Borneo in the report represent the summation of forest loss in both tropical Indonesia Borneo and tropical Malaysia Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak).

Realistically speaking, Malaysia is not without its issues of forest loss. More than half of Malaysia is forested, which amounts to 18.2 million ha of forest cover.

Out of this, Sabah and Sarawak (Borneo Malaysia) account for 12.5 million ha representing 68.4% of Malaysia's remaining forest cover. Seen from another perspective, this means that Malaysia has lost almost half of her forest since the turn of the last century. For Borneo Malaysia, the report recorded a forest loss of 1.9 million ha between the period of 2004-2017. This is 33% out of the 5.9 million ha of forest loss identified for the whole of Borneo over the same period.

Another report, the Global Forest Watch mentions that the primary forest loss in Malaysia in 2019 is 120,000 ha. Of this, 50,000 hectares primary forest loss occurred in Peninsular Malaysia.