Effects Of Deforestation In Malaysia

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Malaysia is one of the environmentally rich and abundant in natural resource and high biodiversity countries in the world. Malaysia is home to some of the world`s most important tropical wildlife habitat, including rich rain forests and at least ten distinct types of wetlands. Malaysia has 2199 plants and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. However, many species are threatened or endangered due to loss of habitat and illegal hunting. Land development activities that carried out in Malaysia have caused huge impacts on the environment. Rhett A. Butler (2013), according to a new global forest map, he stated that Malaysia had the world`s highest rate of forest loss or deforestation rate between years 2000 and 2012. The total forest loss in Malaysia during the period amounted to 14.4% of its year 2000 forest cover. If the loss is translated to square miles, it became an area larger than the country of Denmark. Through this we can realise that the problem of deforestation is really very serious. Population in Malaysia increases rapidly, thus the demand for houses also show a huge increase. Due to this, many forest areas were cleared for housing estates to meet the demand. For example, Bukit Antarabangsa used to be a beautiful rainforest until the recent decade where most parts of the hill were cleared and developed into housing areas. Another major cause for deforestation is agriculture. Malaysia started to develop thousands of acres of forests into palm oil plantation

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