Asian Forest Wildlife

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Forest.org (08/30/99)                                      

Living Forests: Forest Conservation Actions in Asia/Pacific

INTRODUCTION

Forests are home to many important and spectacular wildlife, and in
some areas, to people. They are our source of food, medicine,
building materials for our homes, and resources for trade. We often
use the genetic materials that the forests hold to improve commercial
strains. Forests also provide us with a range of benefits which are
often difficult to quantify in financial terms. Besides protecting
soil and watersheds, forests also absorb carbon dioxide, the main
greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming. Other intangible
values of forests include recreational, aesthetic, historical,
cultural, educational and spiritual values.

In the Philippines, rainforests and mangroves are still being illegally cleared and logged despite already being reduced to fragments.  In Mindanao from the Agustan Wetlands Forest Reserve to the Comval Mountain Region, including New Bataan and Maragusan, and further down into the region of Tagum, the forests are being cleared, often illegally for the prospecting of precious metals. This scars the landscape, leaving dry brown patches in the forest mountain slopes that can be seen on satalite images on Goolge maps.  In the lowland terrain forests are rapidly being logged and degraded by excessive grazing, fodder and wood fuel collection, and pressure from the influx of refugees and political disturbance.

Roughly 16 per cent of the world's forests, or about 565 million hectares
of forests, are in Asia/Pacific. These forests harbour some of the
world's rarest and unique animals and plants -- the tiger, giant
panda, Asian elephant, orang-utan, rhino, Rafflesia (the world's
biggest flower) and the many variety of orchids. Like much of the
forests elsewhere in the world, Asia/Pacific's forests are affected
by widespread deforestation and an overall loss of forest quality.
About 838,000 hectares of the region's forests are lost annually to
deforestation and degradation.

Indonesia, India and China's forests have also been badly depleted and losses continue, especially within Tibet. reduced to fragments. Forests in Indonesia too, are rapidly being logged and cleared often to establish exotic plantations.

In Thailand, forests have already been fragmented, and a Thai
Government logging ban has increased pressure on the forests of
neighbouring countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
In the South Pacific, the forests of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon
Islands and Vanuatu are being logged, much of which illegally.

In addition, the country's forests have been burnt, much of this
occurring in Kalimantan with the worst occurring as recently as this
year, 1997. Data collected by local scientists estimate that this
year's fires have already burnt over 1.7 million hectares of forest
area.