Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Environmental Issues
Malaysia's federal government maintains that it is doing its best to balance the benefits of
economic development with environmental protection and conservation. Others, including
a long list of wildlife and environment protection agencies and pressure groups, beg to dif-
fer, pointing out how big business continues to have the ear of government when decision
time rolls around.
A positive development was the reelection in 2013 of state governments for Penang and
Selangor, both of which are controlled by opposition parties to the national ruling BN co-
alition. Penang intends to become Malaysia's first 'green state' and Selangor has also intro-
duced a raft of pro-environmental policies including introducing a 'no plastic bag' policy at
shops at the weekends.
Deforestation
Malaysia's logging and oil palm businesses provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, yet they
also wreak untold ecological damage and have caused the displacement and consequent
cultural erosion of many tribal peoples.
There's a disparity between government figures and those of environmental groups, but
it's probable that more than 60% of Peninsular Malaysia's rainforests have been logged,
with similar figures applying to Malaysian Borneo. Government initiatives such as the Na-
tional Forestry Policy have led to deforestation being cut to 900 sq km a year, a third
slower than previously. The aim is to reduce the timber harvest by 10% each year, but even
this isn't sufficient to calm many critics who remain alarmed at the rate at which Malay-
sia's primary forests are disappearing.
Close to KL, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) is pioneering new ways
of preserving and regenerating Malaysia's rainforests. For more information on govern-
ment forestry projects visit the website of the Forestry Department (
www.forestry.gov.my
).
Environmental groups such as TrEES (
www.trees.org.my
) have also been campaigning
for the protection of the rainforests and water catchment area along the eastern flank of
Selangor. In 2010, 93,000 hectares of these uplands were gazetted as the Selangor State
Park, making it the peninsula's third-largest protected area of forest after Taman Negara
and Royal Belum State Park. Find out more about it at
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