Land use change and fragmentation in the protected areas of peninsular Malaysia: The cases of Klang Gate and Sungai Dusun wildlife reserves

Abstract

Ongoing economic and demographic growth in developing countries has exponentially increased the need for anthropogenic land use. The expansion of human populations into pristine environments has publicized the fierce competition between environmental conservation and anthropogenic resource demands. Because protected areas (PAs) are increasingly imperilled by human land use, particularly in the tropical regions, PAs should be regularly monitored and assessed for land use modifications in order to determine the impact on long term sustainability. In this work, land use change assessments and forest fragmentation analysis were conducted for the period between 1988 and 2012 at two PAs in peninsular Malaysia — Klang Gate and Sungai Dusun wildlife reserve. The findings demonstrated that Klang Gate lost 29.9% of its forest cover due to surrounding development and commercial agriculture; while commercial agriculture in Sungai Dusun caused only a 5% forest loss. Furthermore, Klang Gate also showed a higher degree of forest fragmentation when compared to Sungai Dusun. The fact that Klang Gate experienced ∼6x more habitat loss than Sungai Dusun implies that area underwent unsustainable development. Thus, more in depth evaluation regarding the effectiveness of conservation measures within PAs of developing countries is crucial to identifying gaps in management and conservation policy.