1. Objectives In this section you will:
Learn about the major landforms of Southeast Asia.
Find out about the kinds of climate and vegetation found in Southeast Asia.
Examine how people use the land and resources of Southeast Asia. 1

2. Key Terms
subsistence farming (sub SIS tuns FAHR ming) n. farming that provides only enough food for a family or for a village
commercial farming (kuh MUR shul FAHR ming) n. raising crops and livestock for sale on the local or world market
paddy (PAD ee) n. a level field that is flooded to grow rice, especially in Asia 2

3. Southeast Asia is working to balance the need for economic growth with the need for rain forests.
Thailand banned logging in rain forests after a series of mudslides in 1988 killed hundreds of people.
The mudslides occurred because trees that had held the soil in place on the hillsides had been cut down. 3

4. Southeast Asia: Rainforest Destruction

5. Farming is a major economic activity in Southeast Asia, even though the region’s cities and industries have been growing rapidly.
In most Southeast Asian countries, more than 40 percent of the population works in agriculture.
Many people in Southeast Asia practice subsistence farming near the villages where they live. 5

6. Others work in commercial farming, growing cash crops such as coffee, tea, sugar cane, and rice.
Rice has been the chief crop (and food) in Southeast Asia for centuries, and farmers use the paddy system to grow it.
Indonesia and Thailand are among the top rice-producing countries in the world. 6

7. Southeast Asia: Political

8. It is divided into mainland and island areas.
Southeast Asia is located east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China.
It is divided into mainland and island areas.
The mainland is a peninsula that juts south from the main area of Asia, and the islands extend east and west between the Indian and the Pacific oceans. 8

9. The nations of mainland Southeast Asia are:
Cambodia
Laos
Malaysia
Myanmar
Thailand
Vietnam
Much of the mainland is covered by forested mountains, and most people live in the narrow river valleys between mountain ranges. 9

10. Southeast Asia: Physical

11. The nations of island Southeast Asia are:
Brunei
Indonesia
Malaysia
the Philippines
Singapore
Malaysia lies partly on the mainland and partly on the island of Borneo. 11

12. Singapore is a tiny nation located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula.
The largest of the island nations is Indonesia, and its biggest island is Sumatra.
Singapore is a tiny nation located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula.
The Philippines is made up of some 7,000 islands. 12

13. The islands of Southeast Asia are part of the Ring of Fire, a region of volcanoes and earthquakes surrounding the Pacific Ocean.
Most of the mountainous islands there are actually the peaks of underwater volcanoes.
In 1991, the Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted in the Philippines, killing 800 people and forcing 58,000 to flee. 13

14. The Ring of Fire

15. There are two climate regions in mainland Southeast Asia between Myanmar and Vietnam:
tropical wet and dry
humid subtropical
On the west coast of Myanmar, the east coast of Vietnam, and most of island Southeast Asia there is a tropical wet climate. 15

16. A tropical wet climate has hot temperatures year-round and no dry season.
Southeast Asia is so wet because of the effects of two separate summer monsoons and a winter monsoon.
In this region, there are often violent storms called typhoons, which have high winds and heavy rains. 16

17. Southeast Asia: Climate Regions

18. Rain forests contain a great variety of plant and animal life.
Southeast Asia contains the second-largest tropical rain forest region in the world.
Rain forests contain a great variety of plant and animal life.
In Southeast Asia, rain forests are a source of lumber, medicines, and chemicals used in industry. 18

19. Tropical rain forests once covered nearly all of Southeast Asia, but huge sections have been cut down to:
provide lumber
create farmland
Rain forests have a thin layer of topsoil, and when people clear the forests for farms, heavy rains often wash the topsoil away. 19

20. Other Resources of Southeast Asia
Bamboo
Bamboo is used to make houses, irrigation pipes, ropes, and bridges.
The Philippines is one of the world’s largest suppliers of bamboo to the world market.
Rubber
Rubber is grown on plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia and is a major export crop.
Oil
Indonesia, Myanmar, and Brunei have large deposits of oil.
Natural Gas
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have large reserves of natural gas, which they use to generate electricity instead of importing oil. 20