Insular South East Asia
There were 10 different forest types in this region, with some representation on all the larger islands (Map 1). The Philippines however were less forested than most of the other territories except where there has been much forest conversion such as in Java. Western Sumatra was more forested than the eastern part, and the north western parts of Borneo were less forested than other parts. New Guinea supports much upper montane forest. Most of the disturbed forest type occurs in the Philippines.
The south west of Papua New Guinea and the south eastern parts of Irian Jaya had less forest than other parts of this island: this area is swampy and not as conducive to forest growth.
There were seven ecological zones in the region (Map 2). The most widespread by far was the lowland very moist zone, which was predominant except in the north of the Philippines and in the more easterly of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sumba and Timor. Some montane zones were found in the larger islands: down the west side of Sumatra, and in the more central regions of Java, Borneo, Sulawesi and New Guinea, and in Mindanao and Luzon of the Philippines.
Indonesia had by far the most forest of any country in the region, which would have been the case even if the continental territory of Malaysia had been taken into account here (the total for all of Malaysia was 148 254 km², with 16 062 km² protected) (Fig.2, Table 1). Brunei had the highest percentage of its forest protected (30%), and Indonesia had 21% of its forests protected. The country with the least forest protection was the Solomon Islands at 0%, but this may have been due to a lack of data on protected areas. The Philippines was the other country in the region with less than 10% of its forests protected (4.1%, Fig. 2).
The lowland evergreen broadleaf forest type had the highest cover of all forest types (Fig. 1). The figure for this was about four times as great as the next most abundant forest type (lower montane forest). There were ten different forest types in this region. Upper montane forest had the highest percentage protected, with needleleaf forest a fairly close second (Fig. 1, Table 2). The disturbed natural forest and the exotic species plantations were the only types that were less than 10% protected. The latter only occurred in the Philippines (Table 2), and needleleaf forest was confined to the Philippines and Indonesia. All other forest types occurred in more than two countries. The Philippines had two natural forest types which had only very minimal amounts under protection: the lowland evergreen broadleaf rain forest and the semi-evergreen moist broadleaf forest (3.8% and 2.5% respectively, from Table 2). The Solomon Islands had some upper montane forest that, because of the geographical isolation, is probably a unique type. Papua New Guinea had a reasonable amount of semi-evergreen moist broadleaf forest none of which was under protection (Table 2).
Most of the forest in the region was in the lowland very moist ecological zone (Fig.3). All forest types in the region were represented in is zone (Table 3), and all had at least some of the forest protected. The zones with least forest were the lowland sub-dry and the alpine zones. The lowland sub-dry zone was the only zone in the region with less than 10% of its forests protected. Forest types in particular in need of more protection in this zone were lowland evergreen broadleaf rain forest, semi-evergreen moist broadleaf forest and deciduous/semi-deciduous broadleaf forest (protection from Table 3 was 2.5%, 6.3% and 2%, respectively).
In an attempt to impartially indicate natural, undisturbed forest variants which may be under the most immediate threat of destruction, a list was drawn up that pinpointed those under 100 km2 in extent with none protected. These are variants of relatively limited extent and which do not even have any legal protection; possibly much less actual protection. Some of these forest variants may indeed be truly rare and unprotected types, others are clearly fragments of forest at the end of their ranges, as for example certain types of dry forest should not normally occur in moist ecological zones, or vice versa. An in-depth analysis of these forest variants is outside the scope of this study. There were 3 of the 45 variants in Insular South East Asia that met these criteria, and these are listed below (T=tropical forest type, N=non-tropical forest type):
Twenty-six percent of the lowland very moist (most widespread) zone was forested, and four percent was covered with protected forest (Table 4). The premontane moist, montane moist and alpine zones had very high percentages of forest cover. Two zones, lowland moist with long dry season and lowland sub-dry had 0% (under 0.5%) of their area covered with protected forest.
Go back to previous page.