Year 2000-2002

2002-2004

2004-2008

2008-2010

2000-2010

Deforestation (ha) 13,426 16,410 63,437 26,625 119,900

Rate (ha/yr) 6,713 8,205 15,859 13,313 11,990

(%/yr) 0.28 0.34 0.67 0.58 0.50%

Summary This study was conducted under Component 1 of REDDES thematic programme project funded by ITTO, entitled Reducing Forest Degradation and Emissions through Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia being a developing nation with increasing human population and the growing economy is often associated with various environmental disturbances which have been altering the natural earth ecosystem. The need for more spaces for numerous land development activities has made the existing forests suffer deforestations. Pahang currently has about 1,562,902 ha of forests is the largest state in Peninsular Malaysia with the largest forest cover, was selected as the study area. The extent covers the inland forest, peat swamp forest and mangrove forest. These forests have declined in terms of forest cover between the years 2000 to 2010 due to conversion of forests to other land uses. Identifying drivers of deforestation as a major cause of carbon emission into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) is crucial to manoeuvre future development and sustainable environment. Likewise, assessing carbon pools and ascertaining emission factors is essential and in-line with the efforts to set a reference emission level (REL) from deforestation for the readiness of reducing emission from deforestation and degradation and enhancement of carbon stock (REDD+). In this study, land use maps over the years between 2000 and 2010, with 2-year interval were used to determine forest cover changes and identify drivers of deforestation in the study area. Information from the land use maps were extracted to determine the rate of deforestation based on permanent land use changes that occurred within the periods. Land use classes in the land use maps were generalised into ten major classes which are, forest, oil palm, rubber, other agricultural crops, urban area, water body, mine and quarry, idle grassland, animal husbandry areas and cleared land. Drivers of deforestation Magnitude of land use changes has been quantified and ten land use categories were established while drivers of deforestation were identified indicating commercial agricultural crops, which are oil palm plantation and rubber plantation as the main proximate drivers for the deforestation in Pahang. Figure 1 shows the magnitude of forest changes from 2000 – 2010. The rate of deforestation was estimated at about 0.5% per year between these periods. Nevertheless in terms of Permanent Reserved Forest (PRF), the Pahang State Government managed to increase its extent from 1.42 to 1.56 million ha within the same periods (Figure 2). Out of 119,900 ha of the assessed forest loss (Table 1), about 36% was due to conversion of forest to oil palm plantation. This was recognised as the main driver of deforestation Pahang.

Carbon pools assessment The study also demonstrated there are high variations of carbon stocks and they are different in respect to land cover types in Pahang. The biggest portion of biomass carbon was found in the living trees, which comprised about 74% of the total carbon pools in the forest. It was followed by below ground living biomass carbon, which consisted of about 15%. Deadwood and litter share the same percentage, which is about 1%. Understory vegetation contributes less than 1% and soil organic carbon contributes about 10%. The information on deforestation and its corresponding changes of carbon stock (i.e. emission factor) was used to develop the reference emission level. The study indicated that the reference level was at 19.6 Million t CO2e over the year 2010, which was set as the base year for this study.

Carbon Emission from Deforestation in Pahang, Malaysia Hamdan, O.1, Norsheilla, M.J.C.1, Norhaidi, Y.2, Wan Abdul Hamid Shukri, W.A.R3, Ismail, P.1 & Samsudin, M.1 1Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), Kepong, 52109 Selangor.

2Forestry Department of Pahang, Kuantan, Pahang.

3Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Figure 1. Deforestation in Pahang

Table 1. Changes of forest cover and rate of deforestation

FRIM-ITTO REDDES Project Reducing Forest Degradation and Emissions Through Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Peninsular Malaysia RED-PD 037/11 REV. 2(F)

PROJECT BRIEF NO. 2/2015

Reference Emission Level (REL) REL was developed by using stock difference method, which can be expressed by the following equation:

Where: ∆C= annual carbon stock change in pool (t C/yr) Ct1= carbon stock in pool in at time t1 (t C) Ct2= carbon stock in pool in at time t2 (t C)

This equation serves as a basis for calculating reductions from various emission factors. Emission factors (EF) refer to the emissions or removals of carbon per unit of the activity data typically per unit area. The Emission Factor will need to be calculated for each carbon pool included, and also for each REDD+ activity considered. In this study, the assessed extent of deforestation was multiplied by emission factor of each respective land use class converted from forest, as shown in Table 2. The reference setting process should support country-level decisions, exploring national deforestation processes, making these more comprehensible, for determining the most effective policies. Reference emission level (REL) was established for the various land changes between 2000 and 2010, however the REL varies from various land use changes.

Contacts: FRIM-ITTO REDDES Tel: +603-6279 7635 Project Support Unit (PSU) Fax: +603-6275 0216 Forestry and Environment Division Email: ismailp@frim.gov.my/samsudinmusa@frim.gov.my Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) 52109, Kepong, Selangor Malaysia http://www.frim.gov.my/frim-itto-reddes https://www.facebook.com/pages/FRIM-ITTO-REDDES

Figure 3. Reference Emission Level (REL) from deforestation in Pahang

Figure 2. Trend in forest cover changes

Table 2. Emission factor resulted from conversion of forest to other land uses

Source: Agus, F., Henson, E. I., sahardjo, H. B., Harris, N., Noordwijk, v. M., Killeen, J. T. (2014). Review of emission factors for assessment of CO2 emission from land use change to oil palm in Southeast Asia. Report from the technical panels of the 2nd Greenhouse Gas Working Group of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Having established RL for various years, the emission rate and business as usual (BAU) with reference level was projected to be 19.60 million t CO2e yr-1 (Figure 3).

Conclusion The studies showed that commercial agriculture such as oil palm plantation and rubber plantation was the main proximate drivers for the deforestation in Pahang. It was demonstrated that the multi temporal data sets from land use maps was capable in identifying direct drivers of deforestation. Although agricultural expansion has been determined as the key driver of deforestation in the tropics, the drivers are actually varied regionally and changes over time. The findings of this study will be an important indicator in assessing forest status in the country. It is also essential in providing activity data for carbon emission studies to make the REDD+ a reality.