Deforesting Malaysia:

Deforesting Malaysia: The Political Economy and Social Ecology of Agricultural Expansion and Commercial Logging

Authors: Jomo Sundaram, Chang Y.T., Khoo K.J.

Contributor(s): Lee Hwok Aun, James Lochlead, Henry Loh Kee Wey, Colin Nicholas, John Phoa, T. Rajavijayan, Baldev Singh Sidhu, Yap Leng Kuen

Programme Area: Environment, Sustainable Development and Social Change
Project Title: The Social Dynamics of Deforestation in Developing Countries
No. of Pages: 253

This study of deforestation in Malaysia's three regions examines the different factors which shape them, the institutions and policies which determine forestry development, the ecological impact of deforestation, and sustainability. Much Malaysian deforestation reflects agricultural expansion or rural development and poverty alleviation projects, while logging became more significant after independence. Sabah and Sarawak have relied increasingly on the exploitation of their timber resources, and private greed and corruption at state level have overridden federal policies of sustainable management. The contributors take a hard look at the economic and political forces in the international tropical timber trade. An ecologically rapacious emphasis on growth, coupled with politically powerful distribution coalitions, give little chance for policy reforms and no hope of radical change. The only pressure that has the slightest effect, it seems, is international criticism.

Contents: Preface - 1. Malaysia: An Introduction - 2. Agriculture and the Forests - 3. Peninsular Malaysia - 4. Sabah - 5. Sarawak - 6. Markets, Politics and Logging - 7. Conclusion