ABSTRACT
Besides credit from banks, the main means of expansion of plantations is the sale of timber (both legally and illegally logged). As the production of palm oil is expected to increase, those high conservation value forests remaining are endangered. Between 1990 and 2000, Malaysia and Indonesia lost 25.6% of their forests. Since the late 1990s the rate of deforestation has increased even further in tandem with the scarcity of timber and illegal logging in national parks. The orang-utan habitat loss had increased 30% and, if things continued as they are now, by 2022 the forests in Malaysia and Indonesia will be nearly gone (Nellemann et al., 2007).
