Malaysia is one of three countries in the world which had the highest national rates of deforestation, according to a new Google Earth mapping.

malaysia global forest change university of maryland peninsular malaysia The findings of the mapping - which documents forest loss and gain between 2000 and 2012 based 650,000 satellite images - was carried out by a team from University of Maryland and was published in a science journal, reported international broadcaster BBC.

The other two countries with massive loss of forest cover are Cambodia and Paraguay.

The report said that although the deforestation of Brazil's Amazon rainforest has reduced drastically over the past 12 years, the worldwide effect has been offset by increasing forest cover losses in Malaysia, Indonesia, Angola and Paraguay.

Net loss

It said that over the 12 years, the Earth has lost about 2.3 million sq kilometers of forest cover, and gained only 800,000 sq km in return, registering a net forest cover loss of 1.5 million sq km.

The amount of forest loss, due to logging, fire, disease or storms over the past 12 years, was as big as the size of Mongolia and could cover the United Kingdom six times over.

In terms of land area, Indonesia had the worst record in deforestation as its deforestation rate almost doubled to 20,000 sq km between 2011 to 2012 alone.

The map for Malaysia's deforestation shows that the most intense clearing activities took place in the states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Johor, while there are also many red areas appearing in the long coastal areas from Sibu to Miri in Sarawak.