Malaysia:
Acacia plantation plan threatens the Belum-Temenggor forest
For decades, the presence of communist
insurgents kept Malaysia’s northern frontier free from exploitation.
Too dangerous to open up for tourism or development, the Belum-Temenggor
forest stood in pristine splendour as the nation built superhighways
and superstructures, and extracted timber from other forests.
Sprawling over 3,000 sqkm, the mostly
intact primary rainforest is now a treasure trove of biodiversity.
The main intrusion into this wilderness was the construction of
the East-West Highway in 1975, a 124 km strip of tarmac stretching
from Gerik to Jeli to reach Kelantan and the east coast.
Not until 1989 did insurgents cease
activities, thus enabling logging to commence a few years later
when the curfew was lifted. But the habitats remained healthy
enough to sustain megafauna such as the Malayan tiger and Asian
elephant, the entire menagerie of 10 Malaysian hornbills, special
plants such as the large Rafflesia flower and ancient cycads,
a range of monkeys and gibbons, as well as a number of orang asli
communities.
The East-West Highway divides this enormous,
but single, ecosystem into its two main parts: Belum Forest Reserve
to the north and Temenggor Forest Reserve to the south.
A threat looms over the Belum and Temenggor
forests – the Perak Government intends to cultivate a 4 km-wide
swathe of acacia trees along the East-West Highway. If planted,
this ecological commotion has by far the greatest potential to
turn Belum-Temenggor into a fragmented landscape with dire consequences.
Big animals require large spaces, so forest size is critical for
wild mammals to retain breeding populations with sufficient pools
of genetic diversity.
Statements from officials say that “new
establishment of forest plantations [sic] must be outside permanent
reserved forest” and that they “must also take into consideration
the current concern for environment and biodiversity conservation.”
Belum Forest Reserve is already slated for protection as part
of the Royal Belum Park; whereas, some areas in the Temenggor
Forest Reserve are under a cease logging directive from Perak
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali that begins
this year.
So far, Perak has revealed little about
its acacia plantation plan. But there is little merit in considering
plantations along the East-West Highway.
Acacia plantations are sterile monocultures:
one tree type, unpalatable leaves, limited wildlife cover, and
unsuitable habitat for most species. It is devoid of the type
of biological life that exudes from rainforests. Let’s review
two examples from Sumatra and Sarawak, where large-scale acacia
plantations are mixed within protected area landscapes.
Paper mills in Sumatra demand wood supplies
from both natural forests and plantations. Problems arise when
acacia trees from plantations cannot provide enough logs to sustain
mill requirements, putting pressure on natural forests. Acacia
plantations and oil palm estates surround the Tesso Nilo National
Park, part of the largest remaining area of lowland forest critical
for tigers and elephants. Shrinking habitats cause elephants,
which are not fond of acacia, to seek fruits and fresh leaves
in other areas, such as village gardens and oil palm plantations.
In Sarawak, the government started developing
150,000 ha of acacia plantations in a Planted Forest Zone (PFZ)
in 2003, in order to meet the raw material demands of pulp mills.
The PFZ is a mosaic of planted trees, natural forests, riverine
buffers and wildlife corridors, the latter two as conservation
set-asides. Ecologically, researchers have found that the only
animals foraging in acacia plantations are bearded pigs, a hardy
species known to adapt to secondary growth in fragmented forests.
Converting a complex tropical forest into a monoculture crop does
not make sense.
Currently, the East-West Highway is
just a scar dissecting a fairly intact ecosystem. But a 4 km-wide
acacia plantation is essentially a clear-cut creating two distinct
habitat halves unable to ecologically function as before due to
its fragmented state.
Here are some of the possible consequences
for Belum-Temenggor if the East-West Highway becomes a corridor
for pulpwood:
• Loss of ecotourism potential:
Today the chance still exists to see elephants and other wildlife
while travelling the East-West Highway. Tomorrow, pulpwood lorries
may cruise down the road like army ants on the march.
• Fragmentation folly:
The acacia plantation will act as a barrier that prevents easy
access across the highway, reduces cover that exposes animals
to danger for too long and disturbs migratory patterns and territorial
needs essential for finding scattered food resources and potential
breeding partners.
• A plethora of pigs:
Being the only animal found to forage in acacia plantations, pigs
may dominate the highway zone landscape and become a nuisance
for travellers who have to avoid their mass migrations and midnight
crossings.
• Widening the conflict zone:
Elephants and other animals are known to forage on agricultural
crops and destroy cultivated fields. So far, it seems elephants
stay out of acacia plantations but opening the East-West Highway
to human presence will only increase the frequency of conflicts,
especially in areas near to established animal trails.
If bearded pigs prefer acacia plantings,
then will tigers move in to feast on one of their prey species?
Then, will poachers move in to take advantage of the chance to
bag an endangered species for big money on the black market?
• Expanding the paper trail:
Despite huge acacia plantations, large paper mills in Indonesia
continue to source wood from natural forests to keep up with production
and debt payment demands. What if 40,000ha along the highway is
not enough? Pressure to expand and illegal encroachment may constantly
plague and over-ride conservation concerns to satisfy the pulp
and paper industry.
The East-West highway is integral to
the economic growth of Malaysia’s north zone. The Belum-Temenggor
forest is integral to the biological diversity and environmental
integrity of Malaysia’s natural resource base.
Malaysians must decide on whether the
East-West Highway maintains its surroundings as a haven for nature
or becomes a road that pushes the boundaries of capitalistic indulgence.
Excerpted from: “Choking our forest
reserves”, Rick Gregory,
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/1/23/lifefocus/16591171&sec=lifefocus
