Agriculture [Malaysia], 1991). Unlike shifting cultivation, the opening of new areas for tree crops has not been driven by the need to replace abandoned, exhausted lands. New plantations represent net additions to an essentially permanently productive agricultural land base.

This profile analyzes the role played by tree crops in the conversion of forests in Peninsular Malaysia during the past century. It addresses four broad questions: (1) Are tree crop plantations a sustainable land use? (2) Are tree crop plantations economically feasible? (3) How have policies affected the expansion of tree crop plantations? (4) What are the environmental impacts of conversion of natural forests to tree crop plantations? In addition, deforestation projection rates up to the year 2030 are provided. It also highlights policy implications and identifies principal research needs.

Under Malaysia's federal constitution, individual states retain substantial autonomy over land development and forestry policies. Policies are coordinated more among the states of Peninsular Malaysia than between Peninsular Malaysia and either Sabah or Sarawak (Vincent, 1988). Because of this autonomy and because there are profound differences among the three regions in demography (Peninsular Malaysia had 82 percent of the nation's population in 1990), economic activity (Peninsular Malaysia is more industrialized and accounted for 84 percent of Malaysia' s gross domestic product [GDP] in 1987), and agricultural activity (74 percent of Malaysian land in agricultural use was in Peninsular Malaysia in 1990), this profile focuses only on Peninsular Malaysia.

Malaysia is a federation of 13 states. Eleven of the states comprise Peninsular Malaysia, which was the British colony of Malaya until it became independent in 1957. The other two states, Sabah and Sarawak, share the island of Borneo with Brunei and Kalimantan (part of Indonesia).

Peninsular Malaysia is located entirely within the equatorial zone. It covers 13.2 million ha (40 percent of Malaysia's land area). Aiken et al. (1982) and Tija (1988) have summarized the peninsula's physical and climatic characteristics. Figure 1 shows how climate and topography vary within the peninsula. No part of the peninsula is more than about 150 km from the sea. The interior of the northern

Front Matter (R1-R16)

Executive Summary (1-18)

Part One (19-20)

1 Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics (21-65)

2 Sustainable Land Use Options (66-137)

3 Technological Imperatives for Change (138-158)

4 Policy-Related Imperatives for Change (159-191)

References (192-214)

Appendix: Emissions of Greenhouse Gases from Tropical Deforestation and Subsequent Uses of the Land (215-260)

Part Two: Country Profiles (261-264)

Brazil (265-351)

C te d (352-392)

Indonesia (393-439)

Malaysia (440-482)

Mexico (483-548)

The Philippines (549-624)

Zaire (625-658)

Glossary (659-674)

Authors (675-678)

Index (679-704)