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Table 7 Area of forested and non-forest lands in Indonesia and Malaysia estimated by different flux datasets

From: Mind the gap: reconciling tropical forest carbon flux estimates from earth observation and national reporting requires transparency

Land type

Global EO (1000 ha)

NGHGI (1000 ha)

Indonesia

 Forested lands

Primary dry forest: 72,109.1

Primary swamp forest: 9017.7

Old secondary dry forest (> 20 yrs): 33,168.4

Old secondary swamp forest (> 20 yrs): 5220.0

“Forest land remaining forest land” (primary + old secondary) subtotal: 119,515.1

Young secondary dry forest: 1772.8

Young secondary swamp forest: 197.5

Natural forest subtotal: 121,485.5

Primary dry forest: 41,029

Primary swamp forest: 4852

Secondary dry forest: 36,469

Secondary swamp forest: 6924

Natural forest subtotal: 89,274

Plantations

Forest plantation: 358.7

Tree plantation: 26,127.6

Subtotal: 26,486.3

Forest plantation: 5551

Tree plantation: 20,564

Subtotal: 26,115

 Non-forested land

Other land: 40,890.0

Other land: 76,809

 Total land area**

188,861.8

192,198

Malaysia

 Forested lands

Old-growth forest: 12,4483.4

Old secondary forest (> 20 yr): 4595.9

Young secondary forest: 361.9

“Forest land remaining forest land” (old-growth + old secondary) subtotal: 17,079.3

Natural forest subtotal: 17,441.2

Forest land remaining forest land:

17,735.3

 Plantations

Forest plantation: 0.0

Tree plantation: 10,613.8

*Cropland remaining cropland: 7037.9

*Forest land converted to cropland: 0.85

Cropland total: 7038.8

 Non-forested land

Other land: 4922.5

Settlement remaining settlement: 2,327.1

Forest land converted to settlement:

137.1

Cropland converted to settlement: 21.9

Settlement total: 2486.0

Grassland remaining grassland: 313.0

 Total land area**

32,977.5

27,573.2

  1. The datasets are the Global Earth Observation (EO) dataset and the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (NGHGI). The data for the Global EO are for the year 2020 [17], for the Indonesian NGHGI for 2020 [49], and for the Malaysian NGHGI for 2019 [50]. The years for the NGHGI are the most up to data values as submitted to the UNFCCC. Units are in 1000 ha. The Indonesian NGHGI data includes data on the so-called “Area Penggunaan Lain”—APL areas which are largely considered non-forested but include some forested lands
  2. Bold text denotes the subtotals/totals for each land type in the respective datasets and countries
  3. *For the purpose of this study all croplands are assumed to be tree plantations
  4. **Mangroves have been excluded from all datasets