The team suggests the loss of trees from the two droughts combined could offset the increases in carbon uptake the forest experienced during the intervening non-drought years.

Where forest management plans exist, they are frequently limited to ensuring sustained production of wood, without due concern for non-wood products and services or social and environmental values.

To encourage this shift, they issued a raft of incentives for forest conservation, such as tax breaks for non-timber forest products like rubber, palm hearts and nuts.