Forest plantations (top) and quarries (centre) are allowed inside forest reserves.
Some oil palm plantations have been approved inside reserves too.
Here are some projects which were approved by the authorities and developed inside forests.
The projects were part of a list which Macaranga downloaded from the federal Department of Environment website.
Shown here: forest plantations, mines and quarries, and oil palm and rubber plantations.
Forest reserve areas were also downloaded from the Department of Environment.
For example, here in the Tekam forest reserve, Pahang, the authorities have approved many forest plantations since 2016.
Each is at least 250 ha large.
Developers would first log and clear the land and then replant with fast-growing trees. This satellite image was taken in June 2018.
Almost 60% of forest plantations in Peninsular Malaysia are planted with timber latex clone, a variety of rubber trees.
Over at the Bukit Lagong forest reserve, Selangor, several rock quarries were approved in 2020 and 2021.
Rock and sand are considered "forest-produce" in Malaysian law.
This satellite image was taken in July 2022.
The authorities had also approved oil palm plantations inside forest reserves. An example is the Gunong Rabong forest reserve, Kelantan.
Usually, oil palm sites would be excised from the reserves after approval, but apparently this concession in Gunong Rabong was not.
This oil palm plantation project inside Gunong Rabong reserve was approved in May 2018. The satellite image was taken in June 2021.
Since 2002, hundreds of forest-clearing projects have been approved inside reserves. Most of them were forest plantations.