(Re-post from ALERT)
Working in Peninsular Malaysia, Jie-Sheng Tan Soo and colleagues have found strong evidence that areas with more native rainforest are less prone to damaging floods in the wet season.
Specifically, the authors found that conversion of native rainforest to oil palm or rubber plantations increased the number of days of downstream flooding in 31 different areas.
Collectively, these findings are important because they provide another key economic justification for conserving native forests — including pristine forests and those that have been selectively logged but still retain much of their original tree cover.