FORESTS AT SEA

Welcome to Forests at SEA! A page navigating through the forests of Southeast Asia to understand the mechanisms of deforestation in this regions Archipelagos. Click a country for more info

Malay Archipelago    *    Riau Archipelago    *    Maritime Southeast Asia    *    Indonesian Archipelago    *    Nusantara    *    East Indies    *    

In just over two decades between 2001 and 2023, the rate of annual deforestation rate has increased by 447 Kha in Southeast Asia.



So why does this matter?



that is an increase in


3.5x yearly


Meaning within two decades we have lost over 35% of Cambodia's national area in deforestation

The decade between 2001 to 2021, this was the recorded net removals and net emissions stemming from tropical forests

Amazon rainforest = 1 Gt Emissions - 1.2 Gt Removals = 0.1 Gt C02e net removals

Congo Basin = 0.53 GT Emissions - 1.1 GT removals = 0.61 GT CO2e net removals

Southeast Asia = 1.6 GT Emissions - 1.1 GT removals = 0.49 Gt CO2e net emissions

There are only three congregations of tropical forests in the world:


Amazon of South America - DRC - Central Africa And Southeast Asia


These tropical forests concetnrated around the equaror make up 45% of the worlds total forests. These forests are the richest in biodiversity and store the largest amount of carbon. The carbon density of tropical rain forests is twice as high as these in other regions.


So SEA is hitting net emissions rather than removals, not only is it unpleasant and dangerous for the region, but it is problematic for our planetary ecosystem.





So why is deforestation happening in tropical regions?

So why keep going? Why not do a hard pause on all industries devepending on deforesetation?
Well because it's not that simple. Deforestation in the region has contributed to



Development and economic Growth



To understand this, we turn to the The Human Development Index (HDI).
HDI is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.





Although unsustainable, commodity driven deforestation has aided in the development of the region economically to the betterment of quality of life.

However, the quality of life provided from deforestation is arguable. The loss of forest may lead to economic stimulation but it also leads to a loss of eco-systemic services like natural cooling, fresh-water and stable weather cycles.

We can therefore think of deforestation as a loan from the ecology - and loans must be paid back.





So what now?



Each nation in this region has a part to play. The region must do the dance of balance between the HDI and the loss of forestry.





Now only time will tell.

Government polices and grassroots are being put in place to address the issue but more can always be done.



We can only drive to make the next 2 decades better than the last.