Malaysia's Rate Of Primary Forest Destruction 3X That Of Asia Overall - Peat Loss Even Faster

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Malaysia is destroying its forests more than three times faster than all of Asia combined, new satellite imagery has shown, with demand for palm oil the reason for the clearance.

The pictures also show that its carbon-rich peat soils of the Sarawak coast are being stripped even faster than its rainforests.

A report commissioned by the Netherlands-based Wetlands International says Malaysia is uprooting an average two per cent of the rainforest a year on Sarawak, its largest state on the island of Borneo, or nearly 10 per cent over the last five years.

Most of it is being converted to palm oil plantations, it said. The deforestation rate for all of Asia during the same period was 2.8 per cent. In the last five years, 872,263 acres of Malaysia's peatlands were deforested, or one-third of the swamps which have stored carbon from decomposed plants for millions of years.

EDIT

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8295896/Malaysia-destroying-its-forests-three-times-faster-than-all-Asia-combined.html