Deforestation looms over tiger habitat 3.5 times the size of Singapore

RimbaWatch said the primary threat drivers to Class I tiger conservation landscapes are industrial timber plantations, followed by real estate listings for forests and palm oil concessions.PETALING JAYA: Environmental watchdog RimbaWatch has found that 258,860ha of forest in Class I tiger conservation landscapes across Peninsular Malaysia, the equivalent of three and a half times the size of Singapore, are being threatened by deforestation.In a statement, the group said the majority of such areas were in Kelantan (56%), Pahang (21%) and Perak (10%)."258,860ha is a significant area, roughly equivalent to three and a half times the size of Singapore. The primary threat drivers are industrial timber plantations (68%), followed by real estate listings for forests (20%) and palm oil concessions (5%)," it said.Class I tiger conservation landscapes refer to top-priority global conservation areas with three criteria: habitat large enough to support at least 100 tigers, active evidence of breeding, and minimal-to-moderate threat levels with effective conservation measures already in place.RimbaWatch’s findings were contained in its report, "State of the Tiger Conservation Landscape in Peninsular Malaysia", published today.The report also found 474,231ha of tree cover loss within the Class I tiger conservation landscape in West Malaysia from 2015 to 2025.The majority of tree loss in the 474,231ha was in Pahang (35%), followed by Kelantan (33%) and Terengganu (16%). This comprises roughly 10% of the entire tiger conservation landscape."Additionally, the report notes that 287,512ha of this tree cover loss occurred in forest areas certified as ‘sustainable’ by the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification."RimbaWatch said its latest findings reinforced the conclusions of its previous studies, which consistently found industrial timber plantations to be the biggest threat to Malaysia's rainforests.Referred to as "ladang hutan" by local forestry authorities, the official position of the programme is that timber plantations are a method of rehabilitating degraded forests which reduces pressure on natural forests."However, this programme is in reality the primary pressure on natural forest, and involves industrial-scale programmes of establishing ecologically-dead monoculture plantations of rubberwood, acacia and oth…