Where Can We Find Forest Resources In Malaysia?

Forest resources in Malaysia are abundant beginning with the well-known 600-ha site of the Forest Research Institute located in Kepong about 16km northwest of Kuala Lumpar. The site is surrounded by the Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve and is among the leaders in tropical forestry research in the world. The site is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and is a statutory body governed under FRIM.

The Dipterocarp Forest in Peninsular Malaysia and the Berembum catchments provide additional natural resources. There exist three main forest classifications: Dry Inland Froests, Peat Swamp Forests and Mangrove Froests. They use a Selective Management Systems and a Modified Malayan Uniform System to control the cutting cycles within the forests. Kuala Lumpar, which is located inland near the Klang and Gombak River has the oldest primary forest of the world in the heart of the city.  This forest is one million years old. Kuala Lumpur became a Federal Territory in 1974.

Water is another important natural resource and links to their overall economic development and environmetal protection linked to sectoral regulations. While there is not a national water policy water controls exist on a sectoral basis and for utilisation, resource protection and pollution control. However the Forestry Department does conserve forests for flood protection and water catchment to maintain water quality.

Forest cover, definition of a forest and forest resources in Malaysia are not easily/well defined. There is a deficiency of proper data/information on these issues. However, Malaysia has 32.8 million hectare of land out of which 24.8 million hectare i.e. 75.5% of it is defined as forest and tree cover. Out of this 19.5 million hectare is forest cover and the remaining 5.3 million hectare is tree cover.

Malaysia is divided into three states: Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarwak. Peninsular Malaysia covers 13.3 million hectares of land, Sarwak accounts for 12.4 million hectares and Sabah being the smallest has an area of 7.4 million hectares. According to the official statistics Peninsular Malaysia is still covered by almost 60 percent of forest, Sarwak by 75 percent and Sabah by 60 percent forest. This leads to the claim by the Malaysian Government that the country is "green".

Dipterocarp forest occupies over 85% of the forest cover in the country concentrating at the lowland region below 1200 m above sea level. In the lowland, for dipterocarp forest alone, a total of 820 species of trees over 1 cm diameter were recorded in the 50 hectare area. This indicates that the forest types in Malaysia are biologically very diverse.

In reality the forest and tree cover has decreased drastically in the past few years. In Peninsular Malaysia in 1970 the area was 70,000 hectares and by 1992-96 it was 58,002 hectares. Similarly in Sarwak the forest area has declined by 50 percent between 1971 and 1989. As for Sabah less than 20 percent of the area since 1971 remains as forest cover.