Abstract
Various international bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have proposed guidelines for safeguarding biodiversity. Nevertheless, quantitative criteria for safeguarding biodiversity should first be established to measure the attainment of biodiversity conservation if biodiversity is to be safeguarded effectively. We conducted research on the impact of logging on biodiversity of dung beetles and small mammals in a production forest in Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Malaysia. This was done to develop such quantitative criteria for Malaysian production forests while paying special attention to the effects of road networks, such as skid trails, logging roads, and log yards, on biodiversity. Species assemblages of dung beetles as well as small mammals along and adjacent to road networks were significantly different from those in forest interiors. Therefore, minimizing the road network density will contribute to retaining biodiversity; this will allow us to use road network density as a quantitative criterion for safeguarding biodiversity in production forests. Additionally, road network density is easily measurable and verifiable by remote sensing, which enables us to check the implementation of the criteria.
Highlights
Southeast Asia is one of the world’s hotspots of imperiled biodiversity because of a high rate of forest degradation [1]
We focused on dung beetle and small mammal communities in this study
Abundance and species richness of dung beetles per pitfall trap were significantly higher in forest than all types of clearings, except for 10 m of logging roads (10 L) (Figures 3 and 4)
Summary
Southeast Asia is one of the world’s hotspots of imperiled biodiversity because of a high rate of forest degradation [1]. Commercial timber extraction is considered as the main driver of forest degradation in this area [2]. Strategies for biodiversity conservation in a production forest are critically important [3]. Because production forests cover more area than protected forests [4] and most of the remaining forest is designated by forest services for timber production [5,6] and are experiencing selective logging. Commercial timber companies primarily use selective logging in Southeast Asia [7,8]. Controversy remains related to the conservation values of these selectively logged forests [9,10]. Even selective logging can be a potential cause of species extinction [11], recent studies show a high conservation value after selective logging [6,12,13]
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