<P> In Indonesia, rising demand for palm oil and timber has led to the clearing of tropical forest land in Indonesian national parks . According to a 2007 report published by UNEP, at the rate of deforestation at that time, an estimated 98 percent of Indonesian forest would be destroyed by 2022 due to legal and illegal logging, forest fires and the development of palm oil plantations . </P> <P> Malaysia, the second largest producer of palm oil has pledged to conserve a minimum of 50 percent of its total land area as forests . As of 2010, 58 percent of Malaysia was forested . </P> <P> Palm oil cultivation has been criticized for: </P> <Ul> <Li> Greenhouse gas emissions . Deforestation in tropical areas accounts for an estimated 10 percent of manmade CO emissions, and is a driver toward dangerous climate change . </Li> <Li> Habitat destruction, leading to the demise of critically endangered species (e.g. the Sumatran elephant, Sumatran tiger, the Sumatran rhinoceros, and the Sumatran orangutan). </Li> <Li> Reduced biodiversity, including damage to biodiversity hotspots . </Li> <Li> Cultivating crops on land that belongs to indigenous people in the Sarawak and Kalimantan states on the island of Borneo and the Malaysian state of Sabah . </Li> </Ul>

Environmental impacts of oil palm plantations in malaysia