Spatial-temporal changes of forests and agricultural lands in Malaysia from 1990 to 2017

Forests and agricultural lands are the main resources on the earth's surface and important indicators of regional ecological environments. In this paper, Landsat images from 1990 and 2017 were used to extract information on forests in Malaysia based on a remote-sensing classification method. The spatial-temporal changes of forests and agricultural lands in Malaysia between 1990 and 2017 were analyzed. The results showed that the natural forests in Malaysia decreased by 441 Mha, a reduction of 21%. The natural forests were mainly converted into plantations in Peninsular Malaysia and plantations and secondary forests in East Malaysia. The area of agricultural lands in Malaysia increased by 55.7%, in which paddy fields increased by 1.1% and plantations increased by 98.2%. Paddy fields in Peninsular Malaysia are mainly distributed in the north-central coast and the Kelantan Delta. The agricultural land in East Malaysia is dominated by plantations, which are mainly distributed in coastal areas. The predictable areas of possible expansion for paddy fields in Peninsular Malaysia's Kelantan (45.2%) and Kedah (16.8%) areas in the future are large, and in addition, the plantations in Sarawak (44.7%) and Sabah (29.6%) of East Malaysia have large areas for expansion. The contradiction between agricultural development and protecting the ecological environment is increasingly prominent. The demand for agriculture is expected to increase further and result in greater pressures on tropical forests. Governments also need to encourage farmers to carry out existing land development, land recultivation, or cooperative development to improve agricultural efficiency and reduce the damage to natural forests.