Deforestation and forest fragmentation in and around Endau-Rompin National Park, Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are crucial for conserving biodiversity, but there is controversy over whether they effectively reduce deforestation because, for many of the PAs evaluated to date, pressure from deforestation occurred both inside the PAs and in the areas surroundings them. This is especially the case for tropical PAs in Southeast Asia. We examined the impact of a protected area on tropical rainforests inside and surrounding Endau-Rompin National Park (ERNP) in southern Peninsular Malaysia by mapping and analyzing forest cover changes and fragmentation between 1992 and 2016. The results showed that the forests inside ERNP were well protected, but greater forest loss and fragmentation were found surrounding ERNP, especially beyond the 10-km buffer zone of the park, due to large-scale agricultural land conversion, particularly for oil palm plantation. The deforestation rate in areas surrounding PAs in the region increased from 250 ha yr − 1 during 1992 - 2007 to 1,700 ha yr − 1 during 2012 - 2016. In the buffer zone (BZ), the deforestation rate was extremely high during 2007 - 2012 at 1,800 ha yr − 1 , but decreased to 440 ha yr − 1 during 2012 - 2016. This suggests that in this region, PAs might be ineffective against deforestation in their surrounding areas. Continual deforestation and fragmentation are expected to occur surrounding ERNP, threatening its protected boundary. These activities may reduce the effectiveness of ERNP for wildlife habitat conservation.