The comparison of modelling techniques for selected Genus Hopea in Peninsular Malaysia

Deforestation, urbanization and agriculture are major activities which contribute to the forest fragmentation and habitat loss. About 60.7% of Malaysia are still forested and in Peninsular Malaysia about 43.93% or 5.79 million ha are still forested. Timbers become the main cause of deforestation due to its commercial value. Dipterocarpaceae is one of the timber families that being continuously logged. For the rapid conservation assessment, ENM was used in prediction of species distribution. ENM run by using MAXENT software. This software used localities data which is presence only data, bioclimatic variables, HWSD data altitude and slope. In this study, the selected species are Hapea mengarawan, Hopea odorata and Hopea pubescens. All these species were in two sets which are with and without HWSD data. The locality data also used to determine the IUCN status of three selected species from EOO and AOO method based on criteria B1 and B2 IUCN Red List criterion. The result produced by EOO and AOO are then compared with the ecological niche modeling. In this study, land use data and protected area data which is latest are recommend for conducting ENM as the rapid assessment tool for the regional conservation and protection assessment.