State of the Rainforest 2014

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Diverse rainforests changed into uniform industrial plantations challenge

Indonesia, about 40 million people are living within ‘state forest’ without a legal right to use the resources, 45 although some recent developments may improve the situation (see below). The situation in Papua New Guinea is very different. Quite unique compared to other major rainforest countries, the forest land is owned by the local communities and their land rights are inscribed in the Constitution. In both countries, however, there are serious conflicts over land between local communities and large scale industrial actors that want to exploit resources like timber or minerals, or convert forests into oil palm or timber plantations. A significant part of the forest in this region grows on thick, carbon- rich peat land. Destruction of this forest is particularly concerning, both with regard to the loss of unique biodiversity and extremely high emissions of greenhouse gases. The peat swamp forest is important for water supply, flood regulation and is rich in biodiversity. More

The rainforests of Southeast Asia and Oceania are under immense pressure. This rainforest region has lost a larger proportion of its original forest cover and has higher deforestation than any of the other main rainforest areas. At the same time, more people depend upon the tropical forest resources of Southeast Asia than any other place. The policy of core rainforest countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea (PNG), has been to allow an explosive expansion of plantations, logging and mining in the rainforests during the last 3–4 decades. This is taking its toll not only on Asia’s last remaining tropical rainforests, but also undermining the development prospects for the large part of the population who depend upon forest resources. Diverse rainforest Southeast Asia and Oceania is an extremely diverse rainforest region with regard to types of forest and deforestation patterns, forest policies and the situation for forest dependent communities. In

Tropical forest in Southeast Asia and Oceania

M Y A N M A R

L A O S

V I E T N A M

T H A I L A N D

P H I L I P P I N E S

P ACIFIC O CEAN

C A M B O D I A

South China Sea

Celebes Sea

M A L A Y S I A

Molucca Sea

P A P U A N E W G U I N E A

Java Sea

I N D O N E S I A

Other forest cover Intact forest landscape*

*defined as an unbroken expanse of natural ecosystems within the zone of current forest extent, showing no signs of significant human activity and large enough that all native biodiversity could be maintained

Source: based on Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, 2013

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014