14 DAY TRIAL // With the help of a newly developed global forest map (all hail to technology), researchers have been able to determine that, between the years 2000 – 2012, Malaysia lost about 14.4% of its total forest coverage.
In plain numbers, a total of 47,278 square kilometers (18,244 square miles) of forest disappeared. According to Mongabay, this area is considerably larger than Denmark's surface.
The same source tells us that over 50% of the forests Malaysia lost in little over a decade were dense ones that not only housed endangered species such as orangutans, pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos, and clouded leopards, but were also quite effective at trapping carbon and storing it.
Interestingly, it was within the same time frame that the local oil palm industry experienced a boom. Specifically, the total area covered by oil palm plantations upped by as much as 50%.
Some vegetation cover (25,978 square kilometers / 10,030 square miles) was recovered through natural recovery, reforestation, and the creation of new timber and oil palm plantations. However, environmentalists argue that such patches of greenery are by no means as valuable as old, dense forests are.
"You can't 'net out' deforestation by planting trees, because newly planted forests are far less valuable for carbon, biodiversity and forest-dependent people than standing native forests,"explains Dan Zarin with the Climate and Land Use Alliance.