STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
58
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
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
Southeast Asia and Oceania
Diverse rainforests changed into uniform industrial plantations
challenge
Java Sea
South China Sea
P
ACIFIC
O
CEAN
Celebes Sea
Molucca Sea
P
H I L I P P I N E S
V
I E T N A M
L
A O S
C
A M B O D I A
T
H A I L A N D
P
A P U A
N
E W
G
U I N E A
M
Y A N M A R
M
A L A Y S I A
I N D O N E S I A
Source: based on Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, 2013
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
Tropical forest in Southeast Asia and Oceania
