190K+ Acres Of Forest Cut In Malayasian "Sustainable" Project; 5% Replanted W. Rubber Monoculture

[hatrack]

Surprise, surprise.

Activists and an opposition lawmaker in the Malaysian state of Pahang have demanded government accountability after reports that just 5% of forest reserves cleared to make way for plantations have actually been replanted. According to an investigation by environmental news site Macaranga, 77,331 hectares (191,089 acres) of Pahang’s forest reserves were cleared between 2012 and 2020 as part of the country’s Forest Plantation Development Programme. During the same period, only 3,971 hectares (9,813 acres) of that land — slightly more than 5% — was actually replanted with rubber or other commercial trees.

The disparity in Pahang state is the most extreme example of a broader trend across Peninsular Malaysia, where less than one-third of the 185,413 hectares (458,165 acres) cleared for plantations between 2012 and 2020 were found to have been replanted.

Forest reserves in Malaysia were established to be managed as sustainable timber sources, and the plantation scheme was touted as a way to transform so-called degraded forests into long-term sources of jobs and wood. However, one opposition member of the state parliament has blasted the program as a “cover-up” for a clear-cutting scheme. “The whole scheme is dubious,” politician Lee Chean Chung told Mongabay. “The loggers or operators are more interested in taking the timber rather than running the replanting scheme.”

Felling rainforests for timber has long been carried out in Malaysia, but clearing land to make way for plantations differs from standard logging practice. Loggers typically only fell the largest trees, leaving behind much of the undergrowth and saplings. When clearing land for a plantation, however, the “bowl washing method” is used, meaning the entire patch of land is clear-cut, leaving it completely barren. Lee blamed this “brutal” method for contributing to the increased flooding in Pahang, which has destroyed entire villages and left thousands of people homeless. “I suspect this single scheme contributed extensively to the deforestation that’s happening in Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.

EDIT

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/outcry-in-malaysia-as-failure-to-replant-forests-sparks-cover-up-accusation/

[Lovie777]

1. Greed . . ..

Brazile and other places have not learned - Easter Island effect. The rate the so called "intelligent" species of the world, we are slowly destroying mother earth and even their GAWD won't be able to restore it.

[jfz9580m]

2. ...

Felling rainforests for timber has long been carried out in Malaysia, but clearing land to make way for plantations differs from standard logging practice. Loggers typically only fell the largest trees, leaving behind much of the undergrowth and saplings. When clearing land for a plantation, however, the “bowl washing method” is used, meaning the entire patch of land is clear-cut, leaving it completely barren. Lee blamed this “brutal” method for contributing to the increased flooding in Pahang, which has destroyed entire villages and left thousands of people homeless. “I suspect this single scheme contributed extensively to the deforestation that’s happening in Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.

You think?