Does the establishment of marine reserves in Malaysia fulfill the original goals and objectives?
1997
Mohd. Ibrahim Mohamed | Ridzwan Abdul Rahman | Japar Sidik Bujang
One of the main objectives for the establishment of marine parks and reserves in Malaysia is to conserve and manage the existing unique marine natural resources for the future generations. The setting up of a marine park requires investment on the part of the Government in infrastructure for management activities such as surveillance, enforcement, public education and research. More than RM10 millions had been injected into the Trust Fund for Marine Parks and Reserves for the development of marine parks on 22 offshore islands since 1989. Regarded as still in its infancy, the marine parks may take a few more years to achieve reasonable level of efficiency in the implementation of management programmes. Meanwhile, the marine parks are attracting private sectors, both small and big scale operators into the development of tourist resorts at an accelerated phase. Although tourist development project by the private sectors have to be approved by the relevant authorities before being implemented, lack of monitoring and enforcement during the construction and after completion of project by the authorities have led developers to inadvertently caused damage to the environment within the marine parks. The conservationists feel that the marine parks are drawing attention due to their attractiveness and uniqueness, and thus increasing their use. However the proper management in a manner consistent with the conservation objectives are lacking. Thus various issues and problems pertaining to the development of marine parks in Malaysia need to be addressed to ensure that the objectives of establishments of marine parks and reserves are being fulfilled.
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