|
|
|
BIOLOGICAL
CONTEXT
Malaysia is
one of twelve mega-diversity countries in the world in where rich species
and ecosystem diversities are recognized. Over 15,000 known flowering
plants, 1,500 terrestrial vertebrates and 150,000 invertebrates are distributed
in Malaysia. Although total numbers of plants and land vertebrate species
of Malaysia are not the greatest in four countries in East Asia, number
of species per sq. km is the highest (Table 1.1).
These rich species diversity are important resources for development of
Malaysia and also for the world as human common heritage, on the other
hand number of threatened plants and higher vertebrates of Malaysia per
sq. km are also the highest in the four countries except for birds. Increase
of protected area is small in Malaysia but the decrease of forest habitat
is large as compare to other Asian countries.
Malaysia is comprised of West Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia) and East
Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) Species richness per sq. km. in the East
Malaysia (1.2/1000 sq. km, land mammals) is higher than that of average
of whole Malaysia (0.87/1000 sq. km ). The rich biodiversity of Malaysia
is supported by diverse habitats, especially by tropical rainforest. There
was a stretch of forests in Malaysia including Sabah, the nearest tropical
rainforest to Japan. But the forest extent has been reduced to 63% of
the federal land by land utilization changes.
Table
1.1:
Species richness and threatened plants and higher vertebrates of
four countries in East Asia
|
|
Country
|
State area (1000
sq km )
(rounded)
|
Known/
Threatened
|
Plants
|
Mammals
|
Birds
|
Reptiles
|
|
No.
Species
|
No./1000
sq. km
|
No.
Species
|
No./1000
sq. km
|
No.
Species
|
No./1000
sq. km
|
No.
Species
|
No./1000
sq. km
|
|
Malaysia
|
330
|
Known
|
15,000
|
45.5
|
286
|
0.87
|
736
|
2.23
|
268
|
0.81
|
|
Threatened
|
522
|
1.58
|
23
|
0.07
|
35
|
0.11
|
12
|
0.04
|
|
Indonesia
|
1,900
|
Known
|
20,000
|
10.5
|
515
|
0.27
|
1519
|
0.80
|
511
|
0..27
|
|
Threatened
|
70
|
0.07
|
49
|
0.03
|
135
|
0.07
|
13
|
0.01
|
|
Philipine
|
300
|
Known
|
8,000
|
26.6
|
166
|
0.55
|
395
|
1.32
|
193
|
0.64
|
|
Threatened
|
159
|
0.53
|
12
|
0.04
|
39
|
0.13
|
6
|
0.02
|
|
China
|
9,600
|
Known
|
30,000
|
3.1
|
394
|
0.04
|
1,100
|
0.12
|
282
|
0.03
|
|
Threatened
|
350
|
0.04
|
40
|
0.004
|
83
|
0.01
|
7
|
0.0007
|
Data
source: Malaysia known species = MOSTE (1997), other counties and thereatened
species = IUCN (1992)
Decrease rate of the forest of Sabah is the highest in the three regions
of Malaysia, whereas percentage of protected areas to the state area is
less than the Peninsular Malaysia, on the other hand oil palm plantation
is increasing rapidly (Table 1.2, Table 2.1-3).
Biodiversity and ecosystem conservation in Sabah is an urgent problem
to deal for sustainable development of Malaysia.
Table
1.2:
Tropical moist forests (original versus remaining extent) and protected
area of Malaysia
|
|
Region
|
Total
Area (sq. km)
|
Tropical
moist forest condition
|
Protected
Area #
|
|
Approximate
original extent of closed tropical moist forest (sq. km)
|
Existing
tropical moist (sq. km)
|
%
remaining
|
Approx.
area
|
%
of State
|
|
Sabah
|
73,711
|
70,000
|
36,000
|
51
|
3,900
|
5.2
|
|
Sarawak
|
124,449
|
130,000
|
94,670
|
79
|
2,600
|
2.1
|
|
Peninsular
|
131,573
|
120,000
|
69,780
|
54
|
7,400
|
5.6
|
|
Total
|
329,733
|
320,000
|
200,450
|
63
|
13,900
|
4.2
|
Data
source: IUCN (1992) and MOSTE (1997)
#Note: National Parks, Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary (source: Thang, 1991)
Although Malaysia is rich biodiversity country, there are large numbers
of threatened species as mentioned above. Defintion of the threatenedspecies
is rather complicated because proper assessment of threat level is usually
difficult, and globally threatened (or abundance) situations are different
for many species. Table 1.3 shows endemic species,
threatened animals and plants listed in IUCN-RDB and protected species
in Malaysia. Data on plants is endemic in Borneo. The number of protected
and endemic species is also large in Sabah.
Table 1.3:
Endemic
species and protected species in Malaysia
|
|
Taxon
|
Number
of Species
|
Endemic
Species
|
IUCN-RDB
|
Protected
species by state legislation
|
|
Peninsular
|
Sabah
|
Sarawak
|
|
Totally
protected
|
protected
|
|
Plants
|
15,000
|
746
|
510
|
nd
|
4
|
13
|
nd
|
|
Mammals
|
286
|
27
|
42
|
5
|
6
|
65
|
6
|
|
Birds
|
736
|
11
|
34
|
495
|
131
|
8
|
8
|
|
Reptiles
|
268
|
69
|
14
|
1
|
3
|
7
|
3
|
|
Amphibian
|
158
|
69
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Data
Source: 1. MOSTE (1997), 2) Japan Wildlife Research Center (1990), 3)
Sabah Wildlife Dept., 4) in 2,830 woody species (MOSTE, 1997)
Note: State legislation; Peninsular = protection of Wildlife Act, Sabah
= Protected Animals and Birds, Sarawak = Protected Wildlife
|
