1. Land Use Change of Forest to Oil Palm 2004-2008 in Peninsular Malaysia : The Impact of Agricultural Cropland Conversion by Azhar Ishak Weather Modification Division Malaysian Meteorological Department Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) ASIA Geospatial Forum Theme: Regional Response to Global Challenges and Opportunities 24-26 September 2013, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur

2. Outline Introduction Study Area Data Methodology Result Conclusion

3. Introduction CLIMATE 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).

4. 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).

5. 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).

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

7. 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.

8. Methodology

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

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

11. RESULTS : Total land area for the States of Peninsular Malaysia, Oil Palm Planted in 2004 and 2008 and Forest Areas in 2004 StateTotal Land (ha) Oil Palm 2004 (ha) Oil Palm 2008 (ha) Diff (2008- 2004) (ha) % diffForest 2004 (ha) Terengganu1,294,816184,972198,20713,2357.2903,098 Perak2,096,589375,259408,83233,5738.91,297,856 Pahang3,592,303689,162757,26968,1079.92,508,620 Kelantan1,502,600100,435127,45227,01726.91,038,749 Kedah946,74380,62688,0517,4259.2434,995 Johor1,907,693821,302828,3627,0600.9789,199 Selangor795,780191,657182,342-9,315-4.9445,753 N Sembilan665,313159,971168,4298,4585.3298,912 Perlis81,429453380-73-16.119,880 Penang104,35417,04816,470-578-3.445,751 Melaka165,41448,21953,0694,85010.140,718 Total land of States13,153,0342,669,1042,828,863159,7596.07,823,531 Federal Territory28,5981942222814.424,995 Total land of Peninsular Malaysia 13,181,6322,669,2982,829,085159,7876.07,848,526

12. Intersection of Oil Palm 2008 with Land Use 2004

13. Crop Types 2004 (ha) Oil Palm 2008 ∩ Crop Types 2004 % Tea3,00034811.6 Orchard50,9465,71311.2 Shifting Cultivation7,2023274.5 Other Crops45,8494,67910.2 Horticulture16,9501,5369.1 Mixed Crops361,4203,9851.1 Rubber1,394,87699,4567.1 Coconut108,6769,7319.0 Cocoa6,16499616.2 Paddy373,8682,7050.7 Sugarcane23,6955362.3 Total Agricultural Crops2,394,650130,0125.4 Intersection of Oil Palm in 2008 with Other Agricultural Crop Types in 2004

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

15. 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 % Tea23813456.3 Orchard14,9992,73918.3 Shifting Cultivation23313.0 Other crops4,74575115.8 Horticulture522993017.8 Mixed Crops45,1651,4393.2 Rubber156,73316,37810.4 Coconut27,4623,26011.9 Cocoa53716530.7 Paddy2,242180.8 Sugarcane6011.7 Total Crops (ha)257,43325,81810.0

16. 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 % Tea2,1502039.4 Orchard14,3181,3649.5 Shifting Cultivation3,5972968.2 Other crops3,5563549.9 Horticulture7,1344426.2 Mixed Crops5,1984570.9 Rubber 253,51927,81611.0 Coconut2,9071866.4 Cocoa3,58144512.4 Paddy11,9663352.8 Sugarcane1042322.1 Total Crops (ha)354,82431,9219.0

17. 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% Tea32300.0 Orchard4,3461463.4 Shifting Cultivation2,155271.3 Other crops16,7682,34514.0 Horticulture1,304463.5 Mixed Crops47,4591,1112.3 Rubber200,54414,6817.3 Coconut30,8363,37811.0 Cocoa471225.5 Paddy50,9127241.4 Sugarcane401025.0 Total Crops (ha)354,73422,4806.3

18. 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

19. 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

20. Thank You