In a statement, RimbaWatch said the hectarage represented 16% of Malaysia’s remaining forest cover.
“If this deforestation occurs, Malaysia’s forest cover will drop below 50% of our land mass, thereby constituting a failure of Malaysia’s commitment to maintaining 50% forest cover,” it said.
It also said that based on its annual report, “State of the Malaysian Rainforest”, 2.4 million hectares – roughly equivalent to the size of Johor and Negeri Sembilan combined – were under threat from timber plantations.
Other threats of deforestation come from hydropower projects, the degazettement of forest reserves, and palm oil, RimbaWatch added.
It said that while timber plantations have been promoted by state authorities as a way of “restoring” degraded forests and reducing pressure on natural forests, only 38% of forests in timber plantation concessions are degraded.
The majority – 62% – are classified as “undisturbed forests”, according to the European Union’s Tropical Moist Forest data set, RimbaWatch said.
“This means that timber plantations are the primary pressure on natural forests, not a way of alleviating pressure.”
RimbaWatch said that deforestation would be a major driver of emissions and that based on its calculations, the clearance of 2.4 million hectares from timber plantations alone would release 368 million tonnes of CO2.
“This is equivalent to a year’s worth of CO2 emissions from the UK,” it said.
The report also alleged a lack of transparency in official data, saying that maps of timber plantation concessions were outdated and the government had not published data such as maps of oil palm concessions.
“RimbaWatch makes an urgent call based on these findings for an immediate end to all conversions in forest reserves for timber plantations.”
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