Strengthening the Law on Wildlife Conservation: The Malaysian Experience

The period of 1970s was the time when Malaysia started to experience environmental problems including various threats facing the wildlife as a result of rapid economic growth, deforestation and urbanization. In an effort to solve these environmental problems, Malaysia took a number of countermeasures including the enactment of the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972. Over the years, it was apparent that while the Act was meant to safeguard endangered species and wildlife habitats, it weak penalties, limited scope of enforcement, and low risk of prosecution created an insufficient deterrent over various wildlife crimes including hunting and poaching. Subsequently, continuous threats to wildlife and fulfilment of international obligation have managed to persuade Malaysia to re-evaluate the efficacy of its wildlife conservation law including to amend the outdated penalties and widen the law’s scope of enforcement. Finally, after 38 years, the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 was revoked, and a brand new legislation was passed, known as the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010. The new Act is aimed to improve and strengthen Malaysia’s wildlife legislation and is considered to be one of the most important statutes on wildlife conservation for Malaysia. This paper makes a comparison between the revoked 1972’s Act with the present Act for the purpose of highlighting improvement made within the new law in terms of its scope of enforcement, and new types of offences, and punishment it provides. Analysis of the provisions of the mentioned Acts shows that the current law expands the extent of enforcement and penalties. With these expansion, the law can now be enforced on wider scope and range of actions or activities considered to be offences pertaining to wildlife. The conclusion that can be made from this paper is that such expansion which improve the legal situation of animals has greatly increased Malaysia’s ability to protect its wildlife and endangered species

Externalities of business entities from plastic pollution at Perhentian island, Malaysia

Marine protected areas have been formed by the government of Malaysia to conserve and protect marine environment from human interference and distinction. This article identified the type of pollutants contributed by business entities located in Long Beach, Perhentian Island, Malaysia to its marine environment. A mixed method of research has been adopted in this study involving fieldwork and interviews with business entities located in the coastal area of Long Beach. Results indicate that plastic products are the main type of pollutants in Long Beach. Effective measures have to be taken in order to sustain the development of Long Beach, Perhentian Island.El gobierno de Malasia formó áreas marinas protegidas para conservar y proteger el medio marino de la interferencia y distinción humana. Este artículo identificó el tipo de contaminantes aportados por las entidades comerciales ubicadas en Long Beach, Isla Perhentian, Malasia, a su entorno marino. En este estudio se ha adoptado un método mixto de investigación que involucra trabajo de campo y entrevistas con entidades comerciales ubicadas en la zona costera de Long Beach. Los resultados indican que los productos plásticos son el principal tipo de contaminantes en Long Beach. Deben tomarse medidas efectivas para sostener el desarrollo de Long Beach, Isla Perhentian

RAMSAR city accreditation: ways on improving sustainability of Wetlands

The Ramsar City Accreditation has been described in the Conference of Parties (COP 12) by way of Resolution XII.10 in Uruguay in 2015. The objectives of the accreditation are to assist cities, Contracting Parties and stakeholders in promoting awareness and also to support for the wise use and conservation of wetlands and to perform sustainable development initiatives. The accreditation encourages and support cities that are familiar to Wetlands of International Importance, but also other wetlands to establish a positive relationship with the wetlands through increased participation and awareness and consideration of the wetlands in local planning and decision making. The accreditation is also intended to act as models for the study, demonstration and promotion of Ramsar Convention's objectives, approaches, principles and resolutions. This paper highlights the significance of the Ramsar City Accreditation and ways on improving sustainability of wetlands. The benefits, challenges and opportunities for developing the accreditation are also discussed

The denial of native customary right over land in Sarawak

Native Customary Rights (NCR) is not defined in the present Land Code (CAP. 81) 1958, Sarawak, (hereinafter referred to as the "Code") but Native Customary Land is. Section 2 of the Code defines Native Customary Land (NCL) to mean land in which native customary rights, whether communal or otherwise, have lawfully been created prior to the 1st day of January 1958 and still subsist as such. Although the law recognises NCR claim by customary tenure, the Government's definition and/or understanding of NCR claim is only restricted to cultivated area or farmed area locally referred to as "temuda" which must have been cultivated or farmed before 1st January 1958. On the other hand, the native believe that their NCR claim goes beyond their "temuda". It includes their communal lands or territorial domain locally referred to as "pemakai menua" and the "reserved virgin forests" within their "pemakai menua" locally refrred ti as "pulau". "Pulau" is preserved or reserved specifically to meet the domestic needs of the natives. Normally this is an area abundant with timber for boats, house, different kinds of fruit trees, jungle produce with medicinal value, a hunting ground, fishing ground etc to cater their daily needs. Purpose: To critically analyses the decide cases related to NCR cases in Sarawak and to compare with customary international law Design/Methodology?Approach: Qualitative methodology with historical and critical analysis approaches Finding: The recent decided case, Director of Forests Sarawak and anor v. TR Sandah ak Tabau & Ors by Federal Court has denied the native customary right on"pemakai menua" and "pulau". Therefore, a thorough study is needed to critically analyses and compares the judgment with customary international law

Development of GIS spatial models on critical place needed of Malaysia Sign Language (MSL) for Persons with Disabilities (PWDS) deaf in Terengganu, Malaysia

Sign language is the priority of communication language between normal and deaf person. Usually normal person tries to communicate with the deaf but due to the absence of knowledge about the sing language making it difficult for them. Before getting a translator, deaf people have to do an appointment with sign language interpreter first. Then, looking at the public officer sector it is also one of the problems for deaf when they try communicating and making an appointment. At the abroad things like administration, religion or traffic signboard they already use the sign language for deaf to facilitate in daily life. The study will analyse the use and requirements of sign language in Terengganu. Geography Information System (GIS) aims to development the spatial models of critical place at Kuala Terengganu that really need a sign language. Before doing GIS Analysis, the study collected data about the percentage needed from respondent and coordinate of critical place in Kuala Terengganu. Respondents are the members of Terengganu Deaf Association will respond to the questionnaire. Based on the study, the regression findings show there are strong and significant between the two variables which is the use and requirements of sign language with value of R2 0.624 (62.4%). The researcher also found that there is positive relationship between these two variables. In the spatial models finding by GIS, Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah (HSNZ) had been selected as the main critical place that really need to use of sign language from the respondent. It is hoped that this finding can assist the government to apply in each place and at the same time can recover deaf person in social functionality

From Descriptive to Accurate Horseshoe Crab Size Variations in Wild Populations

Horseshoe crabs have survived until Holocene, but their persistence beyond the Anthropocene is challenged by drastic environment changes that entail impoverishments and the resultant unusual growth sizes. Previously, allometry via morphometric ratio was introduced to classify horseshoe crabs into normal-abnormal growth. However, the descriptive size and weight analysis indicated a considerable portion of Tachypleus gigas with normal allometry. This error was caused by the median sorting of values. Therefore, the same data was treated with correlation before generating a linear equation. By being sexual dimorphs, these arthropods actually have gender-specific morphology indicators which could generate a functional allometry. Since the assessed arthropods were mature, the 19 % yield of smaller female T. gigas was possibly due to degradation effects from poor diets or stress. Yet, for this population, an added risk was female-only harvest. Perhaps, close sizing to male counterparts could be perceived a survival strategy by the female T. gigas. More evidence is needed to strengthen this opinion but for now, this assessment method is novel for accurate allometry assessments in the species with sexual dimorphism. Overall, capture fisheries could have negative impacts and when made severe by sex-specific harvest, the unaccounted practices could collapse sustaining populations

Assessing of water quality and sedimentation problems in Lata Sungai Limau, Malaysia

Sedimentation problem and water quality deterioration are the occurrences happened along the river basin especially at main river basin in Malaysia. The main objective of this study to review the sedimentation problems and water quality deterioration level in the Lata Sungai Limau, Terengganu, Malaysia. 11 sampling stations were chosen from upstream until downstream. There are four mains contributed in this study such as water quality parameters, distribution of sediment grain size, concentration of total suspended solids (TSS) and river discharge (Q) respectively. From leave-one-out method showed chemical oxygen demand and TSS are the most importance water quality variables with river discharge (Q). The formation of sediment load per day falls between 53.540 kg/d (Station 2) and 1,164.394 kg/d (Station 5) for all sampling stations contributed. The result showed the sizes of sediment recorded phi –0.011 and phi 0.768 with very rough particle sizes which are between phi 1.00 and phi 0.00. All parties involved need to take responsibility and be more aware to environmental deterioration and awareness. This research conducted to enlighten the public about the importance of the environment, especially river basins