A multi-stakeholder strategy to identify conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia

Nagulendran, Kangayatkarasu; Padfield, Rory; Aziz, Sheema Abdul; Amir, Ahmad Aldrie; Rahman, Abd; Latiff, Mohamad A.; Zafir, Ahmad; Quilter, Aida Ghani; Tan, Ange; Arifah, Sharifuddin; Awang, Noor Asma’a; Azhar, Noraini; Balu, Perumal; Gan, Pek Chuan; Hii, Ning; Reza, Mohammad Imam Hasan; Lavanya, Rama Iyer Lakshmi; Lim, Teckwyn; Shrestha, Mahendra; Rayan, D. Mark; McGowan, Suzanne; Paxton, Midori; Mohamed, Zainal Abidin; Salleh, Daim Mohd.; Abdullah, Mohd Tajuddin; Ibrahim, Nik Aznizan Nik; Puan, Chong Leong; Clements, Gopalasamy Reuben; Mohamed, Idris S.M.; Saw, L. G.; Shashi, Kumaran; Elagupillay, Sivananthan; Sharma, Dionysius S. K.; Suksuwan, Surin; Ponnusamy, Vanitha; Wadey, Jamie; Hasmah, Wan Mohd Wan; Wong, Ee Phin; Wong, Pui May; Yeap, Chin Aik; Campos‐Arceiz, Ahimsa

doi:10.1080/23311843.2016.1254078

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Through the problem tree exercise, we acknowledged that in Malaysia, the established mindset of the government and society is to prioritize people's welfare first, and the country's development plans in the past have mostly been human-centric (Nagulendran et al, 2016). After World War II ended in 1945, Malaysia's concern was on alleviating poverty.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living With Elephants: Evidence-Based Planning to Conserve Wild Elephants in a Megadiverse South East Asian Country

Wong¹,

Campos‐Arceiz²,

Zulaikha³

et al. 2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Theory of Change (ToC) and Social Return of Investment (SROI) are planning tools that help projects craft strategic approaches in order to create the most impact. In 2018, the Management & Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) carried out planning exercises using these tools to develop an Asian elephant conservation project with agriculture communities. First, a problem tree was constructed together with stakeholders, with issues arranged along a cause-and-effect continuum. There were 17 main issues identified, ranging from habitat connectivity and fragmentation, to the lack of tolerance toward wild elephants. All issues ultimately stemmed from a human mindset that favors human-centric development. The stakeholders recognize the need to extend conservation efforts beyond protected areas and move toward coexistence with agriculture communities for the survival of the wild elephants. We mapped previous Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) management methods and other governmental policies in Malaysia against the problem tree, and provided an overview of the different groups of stakeholders. The ToC was developed and adapted for each entity, while including Asian elephants as a stakeholder in the project. From the SROI estimation, we extrapolated the intrinsic value of the wild Asian elephant population in Johor, Malaysia, to be conservatively worth at least MYR 7.3 million (USD 1.8 million) per year. From the overall calculations, the potential SROI value of the project is 18.96 within 5 years, meaning for every ringgit invested in the project, it generates MYR 18.96 (USD 4.74) worth of social return value. There are caveats with using these value estimations outside of the SROI context, which was thoroughly discussed. The SROI provides projects with the ability to justify to funders the social return values of its activities, which we have adapted to include the intrinsic value of an endangered megafauna. Moreover, SROI encourages projects to consider unintended impacts (i.e., replacement, displacement, and deadweight), and acknowledge contributions from stakeholders. The development of the problem tree and ToC via SROI approach, can help in clarifying priorities and encourage thinking out of the box. For this case study, we presented the thinking process, full framework and provided evidences to support the Theory of Change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living With Elephants: Evidence-Based Planning to Conserve Wild Elephants in a Megadiverse South East Asian Country

Wong¹,

Campos‐Arceiz²,

Zulaikha³

et al. 2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

Self Cite

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“…This is concerning, as it affects Malaysians perception on how the forestry sector is governed. Nagulendran et al (2016), for instance, engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to identify conservation themes and priorities. They found that members of the government had, on average, more positive opinions on the state of protected areas and wildlife in Malaysia compared to members of NGOs, academia and the private sector.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found that members of the government had, on average, more positive opinions on the state of protected areas and wildlife in Malaysia compared to members of NGOs, academia and the private sector. However, Nagulendran et al (2016) also found that policy and management of protected areas and wildlife was seen as inadequate by various stakeholders, citing issues such as lack of leadership, ineffective implementation, and conflicting policies. Not only that, in this situation, the people remain powerless to stop any action taken by the state government, as public participation exists only in name and any action cannot be taken without the cooperation and consent of the state government.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a developing country, Malaysia is slowly reducing dependence on natural resources, but the palm oil and forest plantation industry still contributes greatly to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Malaysia is in a constant state of balancing economic development with environmental and social goals and commitments (Nagulendran et al, 2016). In its Vision 2020, the government of Malaysia set out aims to become a developed nation with a high-income status, and forestry resources are one of the highly valuable resources that are critical to achieving this aim.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is based on the understanding that protecting forests is not only important for conserving biodiversity, but also for climate change mitigation through storing carbon and contributing to adaptation by increasing water storage, which can reduce the risk of flooding, and reducing soil erosion. However, as of 2010, the percentage of terrestrial protected areas in Malaysia was only 13.8% of the total land area (Nagulendran et al, 2016) despite having at least 50% of land under forest cover.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tree Speech: An Analysis of Discourses on Permanent Reserved Forests in Malaysian Debates since 1959

Azmi

Jenkins

2021

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As a country that once relied heavily on the forestry industry, Malaysia is slowly trying to change their economic dependence to a more sustainable resource, however, the continued reliance on forest resources is creating a conflict between protection as well as development of the forest reserves. To better understand the conflict that exists within the debates among the political elites in Malaysia, this paper examines the speeches on permanent reserved forests by decision makers in the Malaysian Parliamentary debates. These parliamentary debates (n = 229) were analysed using content analysis where three major themes in PRFs were identified: (1) industry and economic development; (2) environmental protection, conservation and impact; and (3) social development and community rights. Results show that economic concerns related to agriculture, timber and development dominated the parliamentary debates throughout the early discussions and the topic of PRF has been framed as primarily an economic issue by the political elites throughout the period of analysis. While there have been environmental issues discussed frequently in the debates, little change has occurred in the discussions on PRFs, which means the fundamental policy underpinning the management of these forests has not changed since colonial times. Peaks in the discussion of permanent reserved forests are associated with key legislations and events within Malaysia. This analysis indicates that the governance of PRF is largely unchanged, and while the new government indicated change could occur, the fact that they fell within two years of election does not lend to a positive note. The analysis has implications for future governance of forestry in Malaysia, which is decidedly embedded within the principle of resource use, inherited from the British era. If forests are to be protected, the fundamental principle of resource use has to be reconstructed entirely.

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Factors affecting industrial localization of timber mills in Peninsular Malaysia by econometric and spatial analysis

Armir

Zakaria

Begum

et al. 2021

Environ Dev Sustain

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A multi-stakeholder strategy to identify conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia

Cited by 17 publications

References 39 publications

Living With Elephants: Evidence-Based Planning to Conserve Wild Elephants in a Megadiverse South East Asian Country

Living With Elephants: Evidence-Based Planning to Conserve Wild Elephants in a Megadiverse South East Asian Country

Tree Speech: An Analysis of Discourses on Permanent Reserved Forests in Malaysian Debates since 1959

Factors affecting industrial localization of timber mills in Peninsular Malaysia by econometric and spatial analysis

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