Fact Sheet: Malaysia Tropical Rainforest

Location
Tropical rain forests are found in equatorial areas, between the tropics. They are concentrated between 5
degrees north and south of the equator. The main areas covered by tropical rainforests are: Central America;
the Amazon Basin in South America; the Congo Basin in Central Africa; Madagascar; Southern Asia and small
parts of North Western Australasia.

Climate
Kuching in Malaysia has a minimum average monthly temperature of 280C in January and a maximum average
monthly temperature of 320C in June. This gives a small annual temperature range of 40C. There are two main
reasons that cause these high temperatures and the small annual temperature range. The first is because the
sun is either directly overhead or is high in the sky. Therefore, insolation from the sun is very concentrated
and only heat up a small area of the earth’s surface. Secondly there is very little variation in the daylight over
the year, (12 hours of daylight). This means that tropical rainforest always receives the same amount of
insolation each day.

The annual rainfall for Kuching in Malaysia is 4000 mm and on average it rains on 20 days per month. This is
because the Malaysian rainforest is always underneath the rising limb of the Hadley cell. In the morning
insolation from the sun begins to heat up the surface of the rainforest. The surface then emits longwave
radiation, which warms the overlying air that contains large quantities of water moisture. The air then starts
to rise rapidly, as the air ascends it cools and eventually reaches dew point where the water vapour condenses
to form large cumulus clouds. The water droplets within the clouds begin to collide and eventually became
large enough to overcome the updraft of the rising air. As a result tropical rainforests experience periods of
heavy convectional rainfall between 2 and 4 pm.
Characteristics and structure
The rainforest is a very tall and dense forest with a very high biodiversity. In the Amazon, there may be over
300 different species in 1 km2, (mahogany, ebony, greenheart, palm and rubber trees). These trees are of the
hardwood deciduous variety, (they appear to be evergreen, but shed their leaves at any time of the year).

The structure of the tropical rainforest is divided into different layers. These are the emergent layer, the
main canopy, the under canopy, the shrub layer and the herb layer, (see diagram above).

The emergent layer consists of the tallest trees, which grow up to 50 meters high. The main canopy consists
of a continuous belt of large trees growing up to a height of 40 meters. This layer absorbs over 70% of the
light and 80% of the rainfall and shades the underlying layers.

The under canopy, consists of conical shaped trees growing up to 20 meters high. The shrub layer consists of
a few shrubs and other smaller plants. They are adapted to living in the shade as only 1% of the light reaches
the ground. The fern plant is a good example of a species living in this layer.

The vegetation has adapted to the climate in many ways. The continuous growing season has allowed trees to
grow tall and quickly to reach the sunlight. The leaves of trees usually have thick cuticles to protect them
from the intense sunlight, are waxy and have drip tips to aid the removal of rainfall. Many species have
buttress roots to support their great weight and/or roots that are shallow & spread over a large are to collect
water from the soil.

As only 1 percent of the incoming sunlight reaches the forest floor, there is little undergrowth. Shrubs and
plants, which grow here, have to adapt to the lack of light. The leaves of palms and ferns have a large surface
area and contain high concentrations of chlorophyll, which can easily exploit the filtered light.

Lianas are vine like climbing plants, which use the large trees as a support in their effort to reach the canopy
for sunlight, (they can grow to 200 meters in length.

The high level of moisture and heat allows rapid decomposition of plants and animals. There is very rich humus
layer but the underlying soil is infertile due to rapid leaching of minerals by chemical weathering.

Epiphytes start life in the trees and do not have their roots in the soil. They simply ‘hang on’ to the trees and
shrubs; they derive no nourishment from the host and are not parasites, (orchids are a good example).

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How and Why the Rainforest is at risk from Human Activity
Logging – Trees are chopped down to obtain tropical hardwoods such as Teak and Humin. These hardwoods are
exported to the developed world and provide Malaysia with valuable foreign currency. This has reduced
biodiversity of the forest and increased the rates of soil erosion and mudslides.

The $2bn Bakum Dam project in Sarawak has resulted in the flooding 230km2 of virgin rainforest and some
9000 indigenous Kenyah people have been forced to move from the flooded area.

Mining – this is wide spread in Peninsular Malaysia, with tin mining and smelting dominating. Large areas of
rainforest have been cleared to make way for open cast operations and the construction of roads and smelting
factories. In some places the mining activities have led to pollution of the land and rivers.

Large areas of forest in the Pasoh region have also been cleared for Commercial Plantations of palm oil and
rubber. Today Malaysia is the largest exporter of palm oil in the world. This is used in the production of many
foodstuffs, animal foods and to produce biofuels. In Sarwawak these plantations have endangered the
Orangutan. The fertilisers and pesticides used on the plantations has been washed into and polluted the
Baram River killing many fish species and contaminating commercial grown king prawns.

In the past poor urban dwellers have been encouraged to move into the rainforest to relieve the pressure on
the cities. This policy was called transmigration. Between 1956 and the 1980’s an estimated 15,000 ha of
rainforest were felled to accommodate the new settlers, many of whom set up plantations.

Fires are common in Borneo. Some of these fires where the rest of forest clearance or arson. Occasionally
slash and burn agriculture – where local people clear small areas of land in order to grow food crops – results
in wildfires.

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