VISITORS PERCEPTION ON VANDALISM AND SAFETY ISSUES IN A MALAYSIAN URBAN PARK

The purpose of this research is to identify and understand vandalism issues that occur in the selected case study site as well as to determine characteristics of the surrounding landscape associated with vandalism hotspots, and to justify safe environments in park areas. Questionnaire survey was conducted and specifically studies an urban park in the city of Shah Alam in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The research indicated that people perceived vandalism to occur because of the opportunities provided by the surroundings, user behaviour, lack of security and enforcement, lack of maintenance and inspection, location and design of the facilities, and the materials used for such facilities. This research is very important because there is no other known research about perceptions of vandalism from Malaysian local park visitors’ point of view, it should help planners, park designers and park managers in local or city councils in Malaysia, as well as the general public, to understand and expand their knowledge of vandalism in urban parks.Parks, Urban park, Vandalism, Safety, Park Management

Wonderment of the true nature

Living fruit plants depicted beyond their mundane meanings are provocative revelations that people tend to appreciate. As human beings we don’t know what we don’t know! The secrets about plants revealed through creatively written articles in this chapter give the reader an opportunity to relate life experiences with plants that are more meaningful. Being able to see beyond ones normal capabilities can give us enduring satisfaction. Plant characteristics are not just seen as another botanical jargon but as amazing meaningful revelations that one can appreciate both physically and cognitively. The revealing insights into the secrets behind various plant morphologies and processes are wonderments of the true nature of things as interpreted by the respective scientists. The stories are made relevant to the audience with their,sometimes,mind boggling depiction of messages opposing our basic belief about plants

Archiving fruits

A Herbarium is a collection of dried plants or specimens of plants, that are systematically arranged, usually either geographically or alphabetically, for reference. Plant specimens are pressed in a plant press, which consists of a wooden frame, corrugated cardboard ventilators, blotter paper and folded paper, typically a newspaper. The objective of pressing plants is to extract moisture in the shortest period of time, preserving the morphological integrity of the plant and to yield material that can be readily mounted on herbarium paper for long-term storage

Visitors perception on vandalism and safety issues in a Malaysian urban park

The purpose of this research is to identify and understand vandalism issues that occur in the selected case study site as well as to determine characteristics of the surrounding landscape associated with vandalism hotspots, and to justify safe environments in park areas. Questionnaire survey was conducted and specifically studies an urban park in the city of Shah Alam in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The research indicated that people perceived vandalism to occur because of the opportunities provided by the surroundings, user behaviour, lack of security and enforcement, lack of maintenance and inspection, location and design of the facilities, and the materials used for such facilities. This research is very important because there is no other known research about perceptions of vandalism from Malaysian local park visitors’ point of view, it should help planners, park designers and park managers in local or ity councils in Malaysia, as well as the general public, to understand and expand their knowledge of vandalism in urban parks. Keywords: Parks, Urban park, Vandalism, Safety, Park Managemen

Wildlife value orientations based on age, gender and education in Malaysia

Wild Life value orientation is an important cognition to predict the behavior of individuals in wildlife management in conservation decisions. This article analyzed Malaysian value orientations toward wildlife and examined differences in value orientations among three demographic characteristics: gender, education, residency situation. In addition, it has tested the reliability and validity of a scale that can be used in on-site surveys for measuring wildlife value orientations in wildlife management. The two wildlife value orientations: domination and mutualism were based on the previous research and theorizing in other countries. Data were acquired from a self administer survey (n=1337) sent to randomly selected individuals in the Malaysian population. The questionnaire was based on seven wildlife constructs based 27 items used to measure their wildlife value orientations. The results were not according to the prior researches in other developed and developing countries; perhaps, because of basic differences in their society comparing to Malaysia. To sum up, rural people in Malaysia were more utilitarian than urban. In addition, Men were more mutualism than women. The people with average education in Malaysia similar to the developing country showed more mutualism than low education while they were more mutualism than higher education as well

Exploring hard and soft domestic ecotourists preferences towards selected eco-friendly attributes of ecolodges in Kinabalu Park, Sabah

The emergence of the term ecotourism in the 1980`s has brought forward numerous developments in ecotourism industry including the discovery of special niche segments, specifically the `ecotourists`, as well as specialist accommodation type, specifically the `ecolodges`. Although a number of studies have been published with regards to ecotourists` traits and ecolodges guideline, limited information is available on the domestic ecotourists` preferences towards the characteristics that ecolodges embody. Hence, this study is an attempt to address this deficiency by looking at the preferences of two contrasting ecotourist segments, namely, hard and soft domestic ecotourists in Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage Area in Sabah, Malaysia. A discriminant analysis was performed using 403 samples in Kinabalu Park, and it revealed two ecotourist segments with significant differences of preferences towards six constructs of ecolodges. It was also found that hard domestic ecotourists displayed significant differences in preferring eco-friendly attributes as compared to the soft domestic ecotourists on the variables measuring nature based attractions, services and comfort, location and type of accommodation. Soft domestic ecotourists tend to resemble the mass tourists as they placed importance towards services and comfort but disliked being in remote locations. The results of this study demonstrate that ecotourist segments deserve specific considerations by ecotourism managers to cater accommodation packages based on their specific preferences in order to ensure a quality ecotourism experience

Health of trees in Titiwangsa Recreational Park, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Trees are very important element in the construction of garden and landscape area. The health status of trees in urban park has not been studied compared to roadside trees. This research was conducted to access the health of trees in Titiwangsa Recreational Park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A random sample selection of trees assessed in Titiwangsa Recreational Park for health status using Tree Health form as the primary instrument. The results showed that trees in Titiwangsa Recreational Park were in fair (63.1%) to good (30.4%) health status. Only less than 6.6% with poor (6.3%) and dead tree (0.2%) indicates that most of the trees in study area suffered from many structural and mechanical damage, poor crown health and have poor vigor

Distribution of Poaceae, Chenopodiceae, Papaveraceae and Fumariaceae plant families in Fars, Iran: an application of GIS in plant systematic and conservation

Several worldwide priority area proposals have been developed, but local considerations are necessary to identify priority areas for conservation within these regions. Then the list of plant species developed to use as conservation characteristics that complemented the Land cover data, as it is supposed that many species would be automatically conserved by protecting their associated land cover types. There is a large amount of species richness due to geological, soil and climatic variation in Fars, Iran and a majority of these species have not been identified. The species were identified using Floras, monographs and available articles. The endemic species and the regions of high species richness of these four families were reported. Results indicated that the four plant families have in total, 126 genera and 265 species, where eight species were endemic. The Poaceae family has 90 genera and 170 species; five of them are endemic. The Chenopodiceae family has 29 genera and 76 species; two of them are endemic. The Papaveraceae family has five genera and 12 species; one species is endemic. The Fumariaceae family has two genera and seven species, without any endemic species. Ninety eight species were recorded for the first time. Overall, the Shiraz town ship has the highest species richness among all twenty townships in the province

Rethinking theory and practices in developing urban open spaces in Malaysia

Since the nineteenth century, the provision of parks has been a major focus in promoting places for relaxation and recreation. In other words, parks were designed to promote public health and to give some aesthetic value to an urban setting. Urban parks therefore can be regarded as open spaces, which cater to the needs of urban dwellers and the community as a whole. Here, urban open spaces are seen as the alternative venues for urban gateway. The fundamental focus of this paper is to provide an increasing understanding of the research, within the underlining value, belief, attitude and lifestyle of park user as well as to know how outdoor recreational activities in the Malaysian urban open space area are perceived. With urbanization and social demographic in mind, Malaysia has become an urban community which has led to realize the serious needs for urban open spaces. This paper will help to clarify the theory and literature part of the developing and managing process of urban open space which attempts to establish a deeper understanding on urban recreational spaces design and the experiences in the urban outdoor recreation

Visitors-wildlife interactive activities towards sustainability of wildlife tourism in National Elephants Conservation Centre, Pahang.

Experiencing human-wildlife interactive activities is becoming popular in wildlife tourism. The activities involve both social and environmental dimensions. Issues have cropped up to understand the human-wildlife relationships that have occurred among visitors that involving interactive activities. The relationships that have occurred in wildlife tourism need to be explored through identifying the visitors' preferences in visiting the site, the level of interaction and factors that have contributed to the relationship. A survey was conducted using questionnaire to 400 visitors in Kuala Gandah National Elephant Conservation Centre (KGNECC) in Pahang, a wildlife tourism site in Malaysia. The findings showed that respondents' highly preferred the interactive activity when compared with other activities, suggesting that there was interaction experience occurred between visitors and elephants during the activities, such as bathing, feeding and riding with the elephants. The level of interaction was identified as high when compared to observation activities such as video show, taking pictures and watching elephants. The study also showed that four factors that have contributed to human-wildlife interactive activities: the nature-based attraction (Eigenvalue: 7.89), conservation-led activities (Eigenvalue: 5.032), environmentally educative (Eigenvalue: 3.830) and human-wildlife encounter (Eigenvalue: 2.803). Further analysis using Mann-Whitney Test and Kruskal-Wallis Test found that respondents' demographic background have also influenced the generated factors of visiting KGNECC. Socio-demographic background such as origin (types of visitor), age, marital status and education level have significant relationships with factors of visiting KGNECC while gender, occupation and average monthly income have no relationship at 0.05 level of significant. The generated factors illustrate several similarities between wildlife tourism and ecotourism, that the former comprised immersing oneself and in direct contact with the environmental elements