Land Use Change of Forest to Oil Palm 2004-2008 in Peninsular Malaysia : The Impact of Agricultural

Cropland Conversionby

Azhar IshakWeather Modification Division

Malaysian Meteorological DepartmentMinistry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI)

ASIA Geospatial ForumTheme: Regional Response to Global Challenges and Opportunities24-26 September 2013, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur

Outline

• Introduction• Study Area• Data• Methodology• Result• Conclusion

IntroductionCLIMATE•Oil palm is best suited and commonly grown in humid tropical climatic regions where rain is abundant throughout the entire year•Rainfall requirement for optimal yield/hector ~ 2000mm to 2500mm (Goh, 2000) •The best annual mean temperature ranges from 24–28°C. (R.H.V. Corley, P.B. Tinker, 2003).•Mean RH ~ 75% and a high light intensity with at least 5 hours of sunshine per day in all months of the year and rising to 7 hours per day in some months; or solar radiation of around 15MJ/m2 per day (Hartley, C. W. S., 1988).

Introduction

Oil Palm Production• Malaysia is currently the world's second largest producer and exporter of palm oil after Indonesia : Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005 (FAO, 2006)

• The average yield of palm oil ~ 4.2tha- 1 year -1, with yields, greatly exceeding vegetable oils such as rapeseed and soybean that produce only 1.2 and 0.4tha- 1 year -1 respectively (Fairhurst and Mutert, 1999).

• Indonesia produced the largest crude palm oil (CPO) production in the world with 18.3 million tons, while Malaysia produced 17.7 million tons (USDA, 2008b).

Problem Statement : On-going expansion of oil palm plantations is due to LUC of forest conversion

• Concern/debating by international organizations /media/ environmental campaigners and NGOs

• sustainably developed or not ? rapid increase in consumption of dietary oils and fats in the developing economies of China and India (Fairhurst and Mutert, 1999)

• triggering deforestation ? /logging over forest• loss of biodiversity ? • peat land degradation ?• high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Greenpeace, 2011 and WWF,

2011). ? growing demand of oil for food industrial processes but also demand for biofuel

• but little is known about the extent to which different land types were converted to palm oil production on a national scale (Birka Wicke et al., 2011).

Study Area: Peninsular Malaysia( 11 states total area of 13,181,632 hectares)

PAHANG

PERAK

JOHOR

KELANTAN

KEDAH

TERENGGANU

SELANGOR

NEGERI SEMBILAN

MELAKA

PERLIS

PULAU PINANG

WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN KUALA LUMPUR

WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN PUTRAJAYA

Data/Methodology• satellite imagery SPOT 5, with 2.5m spatial resolution in 2004 and

2008 for Peninsular Malaysia provided by the Soil Resource Management and Conservation Division, Department of Agriculture (DOA), Malaysia with surveyed and verified ground truthing.

• supervised image classification processing technique was used

• raster to vector layer map conversion of land use for both years (shape files format of ESRI ArcGIS 10.1)

• Only the oil palm layer map in 2008 was extracted since this layer are to be intersected (spatial analysis tool in GIS defined as intersection (∩) of 2 attributes ) with the rest of land use for 2004 (agricultural cropland / forest) to give the areas that have been converted to oil palm in 2008.

Methodology

PAHANG

PERAK

JOHOR

KELANTAN

KEDAH

TERENGGANU

SELANGOR

NEGERI SEMBILAN

MELAKA

PERLIS

PULAU PINANG

WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN KUALA LUMPUR

Oil Palm planted 2004 (2,669,298ha )

Oil Palm planted 2008 (2,829,085ha)

PAHANG

PERAK

JOHOR

KELANTAN

KEDAH

TERENGGANU

SELANGOR

NEGERI SEMBILAN

MELAKA

PERLIS

PULAU PINANG

WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN KUALA LUMPUR

RESULTS : Total land area for the States of Peninsular Malaysia, Oil Palm Planted in 2004 and 2008 and Forest Areas in 2004

State Total Land (ha)

Oil Palm 2004 (ha)

Oil Palm 2008 (ha)

Diff (2008-2004) (ha)

% diff Forest 2004 (ha)

Terengganu 1,294,816 184,972 198,207 13,235 7.2 903,098

Perak 2,096,589 375,259 408,832 33,573 8.9 1,297,856

Pahang 3,592,303 689,162 757,269 68,107 9.9 2,508,620

Kelantan 1,502,600 100,435 127,452 27,017 26.9 1,038,749

Kedah 946,743 80,626 88,051 7,425 9.2 434,995

Johor 1,907,693 821,302 828,362 7,060 0.9 789,199

Selangor 795,780 191,657 182,342 -9,315 -4.9 445,753

N Sembilan 665,313 159,971 168,429 8,458 5.3 298,912

Perlis 81,429 453 380 -73 -16.1 19,880

Penang 104,354 17,048 16,470 -578 -3.4 45,751

Melaka 165,414 48,219 53,069 4,850 10.1 40,718

Total land of States 13,153,034 2,669,104 2,828,863 159,759 6.0 7,823,531

Federal Territory 28,598 194 222 28 14.4 24,995

Total land of Peninsular Malaysia

13,181,632 2,669,298 2,829,085 159,787 6.0 7,848,526

Intersection of Oil Palm 2008 with Land Use 2004

States Oil Palm 2008∩

Oil Palm 2004 (ha)

Oil Palm 2008 ∩ Forest

2004(ha)

% wrt total forest land in 2004 in individual

states (Table 1)

Other Agricultural

cropland 2004 (ha)

Oil Palm 2008 ∩ Other

Agricultural cropland 2004(ha)

% Water Bodies

2004(ha)

Oil Palm

2008 ∩ Water Bodies 2004 (ha)

%

Terengganu 177,476 11,470 1.27 153,830 9,055 5.9 39,818 22 0.06

Perak 357,465 28,613 2.20 354,734 22,480 6.3 32,339 19 0.06

Pahang 672,312 52,857 2.11 354,824 31,921 9.0 5,519 5 0.09

Kelantan 97,531 26,546 2.56 342,177 3,067 0.9 2,809 10 0.36

Kedah 77,284 2,417 0.56 417,191 8,224 2.0 8,833 1 0.01

Johor 768,506 33,575 4.25 257,433 25,818 10.0 15,100 202 1.34

Selangor 170,775 5,257 1.18 136,932 6,253 4.6 8,284 32 0.39

N Sembilan 145,921 5,959 1.99 203,086 16,518 8.1 1,250 7 0.56

Perlis 281 11 0.06 59,242 85 0.1 1,309 0 0.00

Penang 15,334 184 0.40 39,313 925 2.4 370 0 0.00

Melaka 46,915 519 1.27 75,314 5,569 7.4 646 0 0.00

Total 2,529,800 167,408 2.14 2,394,076 129,915 5.4 116,277 298 0.26 Federal Territory 145 24 0.10 574 97 16.9 1,016 0 0.00 Total for P. Malaysia 2,529,945 167,432 2.13 2,394,650 130,012 5.4 117,293 298 0.25

Crop Types 2004 (ha)

Oil Palm 2008 ∩

Crop Types 2004

%

Tea 3,000 348 11.6

Orchard 50,946 5,713 11.2Shifting Cultivation 7,202 327 4.5Other Crops 45,849 4,679 10.2Horticulture 16,950 1,536 9.1

Mixed Crops 361,420 3,985 1.1Rubber 1,394,876 99,456 7.1Coconut 108,676 9,731 9.0Cocoa 6,164 996 16.2

Paddy 373,868 2,705 0.7Sugarcane 23,695 536 2.3

Total Agricultural Crops 2,394,650130,012 5.4

Intersection of Oil Palm in 2008 with Other Agricultural Crop Types in 2004

Detailed Conversion of Other Agricultural Cropland in 2004 to Oil Palm in 2008 for the state of Johor, Pahang and Perak in Peninsular Malaysia

PAHANG

PERAK

JOHOR

Detailed Conversion of Other Agricultural Cropland in 2004 to Oil Palm in 2008 for several states in Peninsular Malaysia

Crop Types 2004 (State: JOHOR)

OP 2008 ∩ Crops 2004

%

Tea 238 134 56.3

Orchard 14,999 2,739 18.3

Shifting Cultivation 23 3 13.0

Other crops 4,745 751 15.8

Horticulture 5229 930 17.8

Mixed Crops 45,165 1,439 3.2

Rubber 156,733 16,378 10.4

Coconut 27,462 3,260 11.9

Cocoa 537 165 30.7

Paddy 2,242 18 0.8

Sugarcane 60 1 1.7

Total Crops (ha) 257,433 25,818 10.0

Detailed Conversion of Other Agricultural Cropland in 2004 to Oil Palm in 2008 for several states in Peninsular Malaysia

Crop Types 2004 (State: PAHANG)

OP 2008 ∩ Crops 2004

%

Tea 2,150 203 9.4

Orchard 14,318 1,364 9.5

Shifting Cultivation 3,597 296 8.2

Other crops 3,556 354 9.9

Horticulture 7,134 442 6.2

Mixed Crops 5,198 457 0.9

Rubber 253,519 27,816 11.0

Coconut 2,907 186 6.4

Cocoa 3,581 445 12.4

Paddy 11,966 335 2.8

Sugarcane 104 23 22.1

Total Crops (ha) 354,824 31,921 9.0

Detailed Conversion of Other Agricultural Cropland in 2004 to Oil Palm in 2008 for several states in Peninsular Malaysia

Crop Types 2004 (State: PERAK) OP 2008 ∩ Crops 2004 %

Tea 323 0 0.0Orchard 4,346 146 3.4Shifting Cultivation 2,155 27 1.3Other crops 16,768 2,345 14.0Horticulture 1,304 46 3.5Mixed Crops 47,459 1,111 2.3Rubber 200,544 14,681 7.3Coconut 30,836 3,378 11.0Cocoa 47 12 25.5Paddy 50,912 724 1.4Sugarcane 40 10 25.0Total Crops (ha) 354,734 22,480 6.3

104°0'0"E

104°0'0"E

103°0'0"E

103°0'0"E

102°0'0"E

102°0'0"E

4°0'0"N 4°0'0"N

3°0'0"N 3°0'0"N

2°0'0"N 2°0'0"N

Land conversion of rubber 2004 to oil palm 2008, largest in the state of Pahang (27,816ha), Johor (16,378ha) and Negeri Sembilan (15,995ha)

Reduction of rubber to oil palm (ha) from 2004 to 2008 in Peninsular Malaysia

Conclusion

• It is demonstrated that between 2004 and 2008, 167,432ha or 2.1% of total forest areas in Peninsular Malaysia was converted to oil palm while 130,012ha or 5.4% of total agricultural cropland was replaced by oil palm.

• This agricultural cropland replacement to some extent indicates that the expansion of oil palm cultivation areas in Peninsular Malaysia is not due primarily to deforestation or conversion of forest alone as is being claimed by environmental campaigners but is also caused by conversion of agricultural cropland such as rubber, coconut, cocoa and minor crops

Thank You