GREEN ACCOMMODATION FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA

The study identifies the initiatives of green accommodation in existing policies for achieving sustainable tourism development in Malaysia. It also analyzes the tourists' perception of green accommodation from sustainability perspectives. Non-probability convenience technique has been used for the sample selection and a total of 100 respondents are selected from the tourists by purposive sampling to identified tourists' perceptions. Malaysian policies have emphasized several green strategies in tourist accommodations, such as energy, water, and waste management, introduce renewable energy, build green, environment-friendly and energy conservation buildings, introduce green technologies, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and improve ecological services. The study shows the positive perception of tourists' towards green accommodation which encouraging sustainable tourism development in Malaysia. They agreed that this accommodation is environment-friendly, suitable for resource efficiency, use proper waste management techniques, encourage local products, create employment opportunities for local, promote local culture and traditions as well as ensure well-being for the local communities. 

Women Volunteerism for Protecting Watershed Ecosystem in Langat Basin

Forested watershed provides abundant ecosystem services for water users including catchment area protection, flood regulation, provisioning of clean drinking water and climate regulation. However, the value of ecosystem services only partially takes into account by policy makers and indirectly cause overexploitation of natural resources. This study observes the economic role of women in protecting watershed ecosystem by calculating willingness to pay (WTP). Langat Basin is an imperative watershed that supplying fresh water source and other necessities to approximately 1.2 million people within the catchment area. Langat Basin has getting the effect of hasty growth through industrialization and land development actions. Women within Langat Basin has been selected through face to face interview for measure willingness to pay (WTP) towards ecosystem protection. Single Bounded Dichotomous Choice technique in Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is engaged to calculate WTP of women. Willingness to pay of women in upstream is RM184.28, followed by women in middle stream is RM168.60 and lastly WTP of women in downstream is RM190.16. The willingness to pay women shows that women has potential to be part of ecosystem protection and signal to policy makers to include women in decision making process especially for environmental perspective

The study of the species from genus Selaginella (Selaginellaceae) in forest of Peninsular Malaysia

An anatomical study was carry out on 14 taxa belonging to Selaginellaceae in an attempt to study their stipe anatomical characteristics and to provide anatomical data for the selected taxa in Selaginellaceae. Out of 29 taxa of Selaginellaceae recorded in Peninsular Malaysia, 14 taxa have been selected namely Selaginella alutacia, S. argentea, S. frondosa, S. intermedia var. intermedia, S. intermedia var. dolichocentrus, S. mayeri, S. morganii, S. ornata, S. plana, S. polita, S. roxburghii var. roxburghii, S. stipulata, S. wallichii and S. willdenowii. Method used in this study is sectioning using sliding microtome. Findings in this study have shown that Selaginellaceae species studied can be cluster into two groups, based on the stipe stellar systems, which are monostelic and tristelic groups. There are some variations exist in the cross sections of the stipes of the same species due to the presence and absence of the leaf trace. Each species is prove to have distinct stipe anatomical characteristics that can be used to differentiate species in Selaginellaceae

Perceived oral hygiene habits amongst 16-year-old school children

This study was aimed at assessing dental habits among 16-year-old schoolchildren A total of 116 16-year-old schoolchildren took part in this survey, which was part of a larger study to assess dental fluorosis occurrence among the respondents. A questionnaire was given to each respondent prior to getting written consent from the parents. They were asked three categories of questions pertaining to habits of oral hygiene, firstly the number of tooth-brushings per day, then the quantity of toothpaste used per brushing, and lastly the number of visits to the dentist per year. From 116 respondents, 32 (27.6%) were males and 84 (72.4%) were females. On the first question, 100 respondents (86.2%) used fluoridated toothpastes while the remaining 16 (13.8%) used non-fluoridated toothpastes For the second question, 8 respondents (6.8%) brushed their teeth once per day, 59 (51.0%) twice per day, 35 (30.1%) three times per day and 14 (12.1%) 4 times per day About the question on quantity of toothpaste used for brushing (question 3), 25 respondents (21.5%) used ½ pea size, 66 (56.8%) used 1 pea-size, 24 (20.9%) used 2 pea-size and 1 (0.8%) used 3 pea-size. For the final question (question 4), 43 (37.1%) had never had any dental visits all their life, 33 (28.4%) had one dental visit per year, 30 (25.9%) had twice-a-year visit, 4 (3.4%) had 3 visit, 3 (2.6%) had 4 times-a-year visit and 3 (2.6%) had more than 4 times-a-year visit. This study concluded that more oral health education programs should be organized to improve the understanding of oral hygiene and the importance of dental visits in order to sustain a healthy oral life for a lifetime especially for the respondents

Estimation of two species of urban plants for airborne particulates deposition: the influences of meteorological parameters and pollutants sources

In spite of being a part of the urban green infrastructures, urban forest is able to ameliorate the urban atmosphere through the deposition of particulates deposition on the surfaces of vegetations. The deposition is aided by the several factors such as boundary layer that exists on the surfaces of plants; the morphological characteristics as well as the meteorological parameters such as wind speeds, rainfall and mean temperature. This paper discusses on the role of urban plants (Ficus microcarpa and Acalypha siamensis) in capturing the airborne pollutants from various sources on the leaves surfaces. The findings showed that the elements’ concentration was greatly influenced by the meteorological parameters. Ca increases with the increased of wind speed (r = 0.702) at Jalan Hang Tuah, whereas at Country Heights Kajang, Mg was correlated to mean temperature (r = 0.795) and rainfall (r = 0.732); K, Cu, Th and PM were correlated to wind speed (r = 0.703, 0.777, 0.735 and 0.689 respectively); Rb and W were correlated to minimum temperature (r = 0.669 and r = 0.783 respectively) while Mn, W and PM were highly correlated to relative humidity (r = 0.839; r = 0.755) and r = 0.680 respectively). The meteorological parameters influence the deposition of pollutants is also due to the sites background and pollutants sources. The results also showed the elements with their possible sources; Country Heights Kajang: K and Ca (7.898%) were originated from construction while Sc, Ni, Cr, Ti and S (17.592%) were mainly emitted from sediments or road dust along Jalan Hang Tuah. Therefore, sustainability for good quality of urban air is achieved through the planting of more vegetation in urban areas

Residents willingness to pay for conservation of green spaces and amenities at urban forest Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur

Greenery plays a key role in urban ecosystems could generate a wide range of services and amenities. They provide residents with outdoor recreational opportunities and contacts with nature to nurture a harmonious people–environment relationship healthy living environment. Cities of Kuala Lumpur have a growing demand for green spaces, due to growth in populations, improved quality of life, increased leisure time, and rising environmental awareness and expectation. Unfortunately, the recent rapid pace of urban expansion and redevelopment have eradicated or degraded some existing urban green spaces and failed to preserve natural pockets and corridors in large-scale sprawling into green fields. The main aim of this study is to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) and the residents’ value of urban green space in Kuala Lumpur city. The results show that 60% of the residents are willing to pay between RM 2 to RM 5 per year for the conservation of the urban green space. The results also indicated that most of the respondents feel responsible towards the existing urban green space and concern towards amenity in Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve

Traditional knowledge management and usage of medicinal plants as daily medication in healing rituals among the batek of Kuala Koh, Gua Musang, Kelantan : an exploratory evidence

Traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants of the indigenous people are indeed a useful asset for the community. The knowledge that had been traditionally inherited from their ancestors is an integral part of their survival as they live symbiotically with the forests. While many researches and literatures are focusing on documenting and recording these knowledge, not much has been researched in understanding the holistic process of the knowledge management particularly at the indigenous community level. This paper provides an attempt to reveal empirical findings about the management and use of medicinal plants in ailment healing rituals. In order to enable a holistic view of the management of knowledge at the study site, the main question asked was what happened during the four processes of knowledge management namely knowledge generation, knowledge codification, knowledge utilization and knowledge transfer. Using the Batek community of Kuala Koh, Gua Musang, in the state of Kelantan as a case study, ethnographic methods of individual and group interviews, observations and participants observations as well as document analysis, were employed to gather the data from the study site and the grounded theory approach was used for data analysis to enable the emergence of the themes to understand the phenomena at the study site. The study, conducted from 2014-2016, involved prolonged stays with the community. The findings revealed that there was an ‘undocumented means of knowledge generation with potential loss of traditional knowledge’, while there was a non-codified knowledge being practiced in the community and widespread inability of basic reading and writing skills among younger generation. In addition, there was a high level of traditional knowledge utilisation in the community but some procedures such as ritual practices have been simplified while there was a complete absence of documentation of traditional knowledge by members of the community that might weaken knowledge transfer

Household’s willingness to pay for watershed protection services in Langat Basin, Selangor using contingent valuation method

The significance of having a payment scheme for ecosystem services (PES) for the purpose of watershed protection in order to develop a sustainable forest management is globally recognised. PES is an advanced financial tool to foster a platform for generating a source of income from ecosystem service users to ecosystem providers. More importantly, the involvement of households is vital for the successful implementation of PES programmes. Thus, this study aims to examine the willingness to pay for watershed protection services among households in the Langat Basin. Households around upstream, middle-stream and downstream segments of the Langat Basin were selected randomly to be studied and involved in face-to-face interviews. The Probit and Logit models in Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) were employed to assess household’s WTP towards watershed protection efforts of the Langat Basin. The mean for WTP of Upstream household is RM30.01 while middle-stream household’s WTP is RM33.07 compared to that of the downstream household, which is RM32.41. The households’ WTP shows an increasing trend from upstream to downstream households. These results offer a new insight and discernment between PES programmes and households’ WTP so as to develop a sustainable management for water-based ecosystem services

Combining the methodologies of ethnography and grounded theory approach in understanding the characteristics of traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants of the batek in Kuala Koh,Gua Musang, Kelantan

Traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants of the indigenous people is a valuable asset to the community and could potentially bring economic returns to them if it is utilized appropriately. While much of the existing researches have been focused on documenting the knowledge, not much however, has been made known on the ‘holistic’ practice of the knowledge at the community level particularly in the Malaysian context. This is an important aspect as documenting the knowledge alone would not bring any meaning if the knowledge itself is not sustainably practiced by the communities who hold the knowledge. However, it is not an easy task to understand the management aspect of the knowledge especially if the researcher comes from a ‘different world view’ that the indigenous people themselves. This study is an attempt to combine two methodologies namely ethnographic approach as data gathering method and the principles of grounded theory approach as data analysis in understanding how the traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants is being protected by the indigenous people. Using the Orang Asli Batek in Kuala Koh, Gua Musang, Kelantan as a case study, this research involved multiple prolonged stays with the community (2013-2016) and employed ethnographic techniques of individual and group interviews, observation and participant observation as well as document analysis to gather the data. The collected data was analysed using the principles of grounded theory where all responses that were recorded in verbatim was organised and analysed in stages of coding such as ‘initial coding’, ‘selective coding’ and ‘theme’ which upon further analysis, had enabled the description of the characteristics of the traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants of the Bateks. The result of this study found that the combination of the two methodologies are indeed useful and in fact are complementary with each other in understanding the characteristics of the traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants of the Bateks of Kuala Koh as part of the indigenous community in the country. In particular, employing the two methods has enabled the study to identify the characteristics (forms) of the TK that can be found in an indigenous community such as the Bateks of Kuala Koh. This research has provided a greater understanding on the existing state of protecting the TK being practiced by the Bateks. The study also provides useful contribution to the body of knowledge as the methodological approach used could be employed by future researches in understanding similar approach in understanding similar phenomena