Deforesting Malaysia

This study of deforestation in three Southeast Asian regions – Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak – 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 managemnt. 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.

Author Biography

Jomo K. S. is professor in applied economics at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. His many previous publications include Tigers in Trouble – Financial Governance, Liberalization & the Crises in East Asia (Zed Books 1998). The contributors are researchers based in Southeast Asia.