Deforestation in Malaysia

Deforestation in Malaysia has taken place on an industrial scale. Malaysia is megadiverse country endowed with large tracts of tropical rainforest. In British Malaya, deforestation began in 1880 and was driven by the expansion of commercial rubber and palm oil cultivation. Between 1990 and 2010, Malaysia lost an estimated 8.6% of its forest cover, or around 1,920,000 hectares (4,700,000 acres). Logging and land clearing has particularly been driven by the palm oil sector. World Bank policies in the 1970s encouraged palm oil expansion and the IMF’s bailout package, following the 1998 economic crisis, incentivised the expansion of palm plantations. In recent decades, conservation efforts have attempted to protect Malaysia's forests and reduce the rate of deforestation.