IRRECOVERABLE CARBON COUNTRY PROFILE
Malaysia
1.044
BILLION
metric tons of total irrecoverable carbon located in Malaysia, averaging 55.1 metric tons per hectare in lands that contain irrecoverable carbon
26.2
PERCENT
of irrecoverable carbon is within protected areas
68.3
PERCENT
of irrecoverable carbon is within Indigenous and community lands
1295
VERTEBRATE SPECIES
in high-carbon areas
16.2
PERCENT
of irrecoverable carbon lost between 2011-2024
Both peninsular Malaysia and the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah on the island of Borneo contain areas of primary forest and peat swamps with high concentrations of irrecoverable carbon. However, Malaysia has lost more than 200 million metric tons of irrecoverable carbon — 16 percent of its total — due to commodity-driven deforestation over the last 15 years. It is the second-largest producer of palm oil globally, and palm oil concessions often overlap with forest and tropical peatlands.
- The country boundaries shown on this map are recognized by the country authority.
- The carbon breakdown numbers are summarized according to MarineRegions.org, which is in the public domain. This may result in islands, territories and boundaries that do not accord strictly with those protocols used by the UN and other international organizations. The boundaries and territory/country names used by CI or by CI's partner organizations and contributors in this research do not imply endorsement or acceptance by CI of those boundaries or country names.
- Protected area stats are from the World Database on Protected Areas, available at: www.protectedplanet.net. This spatial database is publicly available and displayed on https://irrecoverable.resilienceatlas.org/.
- Indigenous & community lands stats are from spatial data compiled by the ICCA Consortium in 2021. This spatial dataset is extensive but not comprehensive, and it is not publicly available due to sensitivities with displaying Indigenous & community lands. More information can be found at: https://report.territoriesoflife.org/. Protected areas and Indigenous & community lands are not mutually exclusive and may overlap.
- ‘Loss from 2011-2020’ is derived from Hansen et al.’s spatial data on annual tree cover loss, which underpins Global Forest Watch (https://www.globalforestwatch.org/). We found that 83% of irrecoverable lands are tree-covered, so this dataset captures the majority but not all irrecoverable carbon loss globally.
- Species numbers are derived from the habitat ranges of 10,744 species of birds, 5,219 mammals, 4,462 reptiles, and 6,254 amphibians. Thousands of scientists contribute to this data through IUCN (https://www.iucnredlist.org/) and BirdLife International. We included only those species whose habitat ranges had at least 100 sq km overlap with irrecoverable carbon lands.