Quantifying rate of deforestation and CO₂emission in Peninsular Malaysia using Palsar imageries

Abstract

Abstract.Increasing human population and the rapid grows of Malaysia's economy are often associated with various environmental disturbances which have been contributing to depletion of natural resources and climate change. The need for more spaces for numerous land development activities has made the existing forests suffer deforestation. The study was carried out in Peninsular Malaysia, which currently has about 5.9 million ha of forests. Phased array type L-band SAR (Palsar) and Palsar-2 images over the years 2010 and 2015, respectively were used to identify forest cover and deforestation occurrences resulted from various conversion of forests to other land uses. Forests have been identified from horizontal-vertical (HV) polarization and then classified into three major categories, which are inland, peat swamp and mangrove. Pixel subtraction technique was used to determine areas that have been changing from forests to other land uses. Forest areas have been found declined from about 6.1 million ha in year 2010 to some 5.9 million ha in 2015 due to conversion of forests to other land uses. Causes of deforestation have been identified and the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that has been emitted due to the deforestation activity has been determined in this study. Oil palm and rubber plantations expansion has been found the most prominent factor that caused deforestation in Peninsular Malaysia, especially in the states of Pahang, Terengganu, Johor and Kelantan. The rate of deforestation in the period was at 0.66 % yr -1 , which amounted a total of about 200,225 ha over the five years. Carbon loss was estimated at about 30.2 million Mg C, which has resulted in CO2 emission accounted at about 110.6 million Mg CO2. The rate of CO2 emission that has been resulted from deforestation was estimated at 22.1 million Mg CO2 yr -1 . The study found that the use of a series of Palsar and Palsar-2 images are the most appropriate sensors to be used for monitoring of deforestation over the Peninsular Malaysia region.

Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation

“…Despite both the Pendrill et al (37) and Goldman et al (36) datasets indicating that oil palm expansion is also a key driver of recent deforestation in Malaysia, we find no national-level estimates of this in our literature review (see table S5). However, by combining the estimates of oil palm-driven deforestation in Peninsular Malaysia by (158) and in the Malaysia Borneo by (137), we estimate that just over 0.05 Mh/y of forests were converted to oil palm plantations in the 2010-2015 period. This estimate is similar to that of Pendrill et al (37) (0.05 Mha/y), but only a third of that of Goldman et al (36) (0.16 Mha/y) for the same time period.…”

“…a Brazil(130), Indonesia(55,114) b Brazil (131) c Brazil(80,132,133) d Indonesia(55,114,134,135); Malaysia(136,137) …”

Prediction of Oil Palm Yield Using Machine Learning in the Perspective of Fluctuating Weather and Soil Moisture Conditions: Evaluation of a Generic Workflow

“…The state includes 74 forest reserves with 10 virgin forests, the largest of which is Taman Negara Pahang, a part of the Central Forest Spine blueprint [56]. Despite all efforts, forest conservation in Pahang remains ineffective, with oil palm development serving as one of the principal causes of deforestation, emitting 110.6 million Mg CO 2 across the Malaysian Peninsula between 2005 and 2015 [57,58]. Out of Malaysia's 5.87 million hectares of oil palm, 15% are planted in Pahang, which accounts for 23.4% of the state's GDP [59][60][61].…”

Enhancing Uptake of Nature-Based Solutions for Informing Coastal Sustainable Development Policy and Planning: A Malaysia Case Study

“…Additionally, it has been reported that encroachment (Noh et al, 2018), illegal development (Hashim et al, 2019), deforestation caused by agriculture (Hezri and Hasan, 2006;Hamdan et al, 2016;Sarmin et al, 2016), aquaculture (Hamdan et al, 2016;Sarmin et al, 2016), urban expansion (Aisyah et al, 2015;Islam et al, 2017;Hashim et al, 2019), pollution and excessive tourism activities (Sarmin et al, 2016;Islam et al, 2017), and mass tourism (Hashim et al, 2019) have endangered the biodiversity in many of these areas. These factors attributed to weaknesses in the implementation of management plans (Pourebrahim et al, 2015;Marzukhi, 2020) which is now adding pressure for Malaysia to move toward a more sustainable future.…”