Deforestation has been causing various environmental problems in Southeast Asia. There are many causes of deforestation and the main cause is population growth. As the population of Southeast Asian countries increases rapidly, there is a huge increase in demand for houses. Many forest areas were cleared in order to give way for housing estates in order to meet this huge demand. For example, Bukit Antarabangsa in Malaysia used to be beautiful rainforest until the recent decade where most parts of this hill were cleared and developed into housing areas. Another major cause for deforestation is agriculture. Few decades ago, Malaysia started developing thousands of acres of forest areas into palm oil plantations. Now, even though Malaysia is one of the biggest palm oil producers in the world, we need to keep in mind that this has caused major deforestation in Malaysia. If drive along the Malaysia's North-South Highway(PLUS), you can see that there are many oil palm plantations on both side of the road at most part of these highway. Hence, you can see the magnitude of deforestation that has taken place in Malaysia.
There are many environmental problems which is caused by deforestation. One of it is the loss of habitat. Many animals were forced out of their habitat when deforestation takes place. Animals would not have a place to live and they would not have enough food in the remaining forest areas. Many animals died because of this and inevitably they have to face extinction. Many species of plants were also lost as they were chopped down to serve the human cause. Biodiversity was also affected as certain agricultural plants would become dominant in certain areas. In Malaysia, oil palm became the dominant species while the other species of plants would lose out and face extinction.
Another major effect of deforestation is the higher occurrence of landslides. In Bukit Antarabangsa, Malaysia, landslides have been occuring frequently within the past decade. This is because when trees are chopped down, the soil would be left unprotected. Hence, when it rains, soil would flow rapidly with the rainwater and this causes the soil structure to weaken. This would eventually cause a landslide where many lives would be at risk.
