Activities Report Mar 2000 Newsletter
Move for state governments to submit master plan of
hill developments most timely
The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) welcomes
the move by the Federal Government to require master plans of hill developments
from all State Governments. This step will definitely ensure a safer and
more sustainable development of hill areas around the country. The Federal
Government however must ensure that the plans consistently follow a set
of basic criteria for hill development. The master plan would prove
useless if different states follow different criteria. Areas such as Cameron
Highlands, Fraser’s Hill, Genting Highlands, Bukit Larut are among the
many highlands that are under constant threat from indiscriminate land
clearing not only for resorts and residential development but from agriculture
activities as well.
Most of the larger developments which
develop high rise buildings, factories or other buildings submit an EIA
to the states but the smaller scale developers are not required to and
thus cut indiscriminately. Agricultural activities, both small and large
scale should refer to the master plan for their activities. The State Government
should than make sure that these areas are not left barren. The highlands
always receive a higher percentage of rain and if there is no ground vegetation,
the soil on these steeper slopes will erode even quicker. All forest above
1000m and steeper than 45° should be protected at all costs as they
are they play the same ecological functions as repositories of biological
diversity and timber, carbon sinks, climate moderators and water catchments.
Most of these areas are now under threat from logging, encroachment from
plantations, resorts and residential developments.
Areas like Cameron Highlands, Fraser’s
Hill and Genting Highlands are soon losing its appeal as cool highland
retreats as the development in those areas have increased the temperatures
by at least 2° C in the past few years. Places like Cameron Highlands,
which were so lush and green, are now an eyesore simply because there is
so much development in these areas. Highlands also house some of the world’s
rarest plants and animals, especially insects. Indiscriminate and unsupervised
development will only scar beautiful places like these for a long time.
It is thus important that the master plan stress the need for further developments
of the highland environment. Development should be limited and where possible
refrained from, as most of these areas became tourist attractions because
of its cool natural environment.
The move by the Federal Government for
the submission of a master plan for hill development would enable both
the state and the federal authorities to keep a tab on indiscriminate use
of hill slides. Not only would the environment benefit from this but lives
of the general public will be less threatened. In addition to this the
State Governments have to monitor all highland activities that take place
in their respective jurisdictions, as this will deter many errant developers
and land clearing activities.
Dato' Dr. Salleh Mohd Nor
Kuala Lumpur, January 21, 2000
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Created on 15th Mar 2000