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Contributors
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- By George Aiken, Andy Baker, Thomas J. Boyd, Rasmus Bro, Robert F. Chen, Paula G. Coble, Robyn N. Conmy, Rose M. Cory, Carlos E. Del Castillo, Rossana Del Vecchio, Bryan D. Downing, Rachel S. Gabor, John R. Gilchrist, Diane M. McKnight, Matthew P. Miller, Kathleen R. Murphy, Christopher L. Osburn, Darren M. Reynolds, Robert G. M. Spencer, Colin A. Stedmon
- Edited by Paula G. Coble, University of South Florida, Jamie Lead, University of South Carolina, Andy Baker, Darren M. Reynolds, University of the West of England, Bristol, Robert G. M. Spencer, Florida State University
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- Book:
- Aquatic Organic Matter Fluorescence
- Published online:
- 05 June 2014
- Print publication:
- 14 July 2014, pp ix-x
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Seeking Redress in the Courts: Indigenous Land Rights and Judicial Decisions in Malaysia*
- S. ROBERT AIKEN, COLIN H. LEIGH
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- Journal:
- Modern Asian Studies / Volume 45 / Issue 4 / July 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 December 2010, pp. 825-875
- Print publication:
- July 2011
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Malaysia's indigenous peoples continue to suffer numerous grievous injustices, including appropriation of their ancestral lands and socio-economic deprivation. In large part because their voices of resistance to development policies have gone unheard by the authorities, a growing number of individuals and communities have taken their grievances to the nation's courts. In particular, they have pleaded for judicial intervention to address alleged breaches of statutory land and other rights by governments and their contractors, and for recognition of native title at common law. In the landmark 1996 Adong case, the High Court ruled that Malaysian jurisprudence recognizes native title, thus bringing Malaysia into line with a number of other countries that share an English-derived legal system. The concept has been upheld in subsequent High Court, Court of Appeal, and Federal Court judgments. In spite of the rulings in favour of indigenous parties, the federal government, along with certain of the state governments, has continued to adopt an adversarial approach to indigenous land issues. An encouraging development is the reported willingness of governments in Perak and Selangor to tackle indigenous land rights issues through mediation rather than litigation. This paper summarizes seven court cases concerning alleged breaches of statutory rights and four cases dealing with native title at common law; it also looks at certain issues arising from the cases, as well as the responses of communities and governments to the various court judgments.
Peninsular Malaysia's Protected Areas' Coverage, 1903–92: Creation, Rescission, Excision, and Intrusion
- S. Robert Aiken
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- Journal:
- Environmental Conservation / Volume 21 / Issue 1 / Spring 1994
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 August 2009, pp. 49-56
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As in other former British colonies, the earliest protected areas in Peninsular Malaysia were game reserves. There were twenty protected areas at the end of the colonial period (1957), and twenty-five in 1992. The outstanding achievement of the colonial period was the creation of King George V National Park (now Taman Negara), but unfortunately too much reliance was subsequently placed upon it. Protected areas were established in economically undesirable or (formerly) remote areas, largely on an ad hoc basis and mainly as a kind of ‘residual’ land-use. The protected areas have long suffered from rescissions, excisions, and encroachments, primarily for three reasons: because commercial interests have always prevailed; because of insecurity of land tenure; and because ordinary people have been denied a stake in such areas.
I estimate that the ‘effective’ protected-area coverage in 1992 was probably no greater than that of about AD 1940 (when, unlike the situation today, most of the Peninsula still remained forested). The Malaysian states have been reluctant to create new protected areas, and the federal government has been unwilling to invoke certain of its constitutional powers in order to acquire state lands for national parks. Consequently, proposals for additional protected areas have produced few results. Yet owing to the rapid pace of anthropogenic forest change, the Peninsula is running out of potential sites for new protected ares.
Reserved forests comprise virtually all of the Peninsula's remaining forest cover (see Fig. 1). Set aside mainly for productive and protective purposes, it is these forests, not the protected areas, that harbour most of the region's wildlife. This being the case, and keeping in mind that almost all of the wild species are forest-dwelling, it follows that wildlife conservation must come to rely more and more heavily on the reserved forests. Studies conducted by Johns (e.g. 1983, 1986, 1987) at Sungai Tekam, Pahang, on the impact of logging on wildlife, reveal that most species can adapt to the altered conditions of logged forests; or, more precisely, that this appears to be the case following a single logging operation. But this topic, interesting and important as it is, takes us beyond the scope of this paper.
The matter of species adaptability, however, brings to mind a more general theme, which is the need to implement the principles of conservation everywhere, not just in specially protected areas. There is, in short, no effective alternative to rational land-use planning and to making conservation an integral part of all production processes.
Man's Impact on the Natural Environment of Peninsular Malaysia: Some Problems and Human Consequences
- S. Robert Aiken, Michael R. Moss
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- Journal:
- Environmental Conservation / Volume 3 / Issue 4 / Winter 1976
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 August 2009, pp. 273-283
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Malaysia is one of the world's most successful ‘developing’ countries. As such it provides some excellent examples of rapidly changing man–environment relationships of a type that are soon to be expected in many other Third World nations.
The examples selected for this paper have been chosen to show both the degree of Man's impact on the natural environment of Peninsular Malaysia and also the changing relationships between Man and his environment. These two themes are inextricably related. The case-studies used illustrate these themes on different areal scales.
The impact of oil spillage from grounded supertankers using the Straits of Malacca and Singapore illustrates the international implications of a potentially widespread ecological disaster. The need for international control is stressed. In Malaysia, effluent from palm-oil processing mills is becoming an increasingly serious water-pollution problem in many of the Peninsula's rivers. Although the effects may be confined to individual drainage-basins, the results can be catastrophic to both aquatic and marine ecosystems and to the people who obtain their livelihood from them.
Land development and forest clearance have resulted in the opening up of vast areas to new rural settlements, a process paralleled by rapid urbanization. The third case-study considers Man's changing relationship to his disease environment in both rural and urban areas from the point of view of man–mosquito relationships. Finally, as a local problem, the Batu Caves situation is taken to illustrate conflicting resource demands for a unique limestone habitat. The impact of industrial pollution on the local population is emphasized.
These problems are finally considered from the point of view of the quality of life and human welfare in developing countries. It is argued that raising levels of human welfare through development without giving due consideration to environmental impact may be a self-defeating process. Local issues probably make the individual aware of this paradox. Perhaps only when the cumulative environmental and individual impact of human activities is appreciated at local, regional, and national, scales will effective legislative controls be introduced.
Struggling to Save Malaysia's Endau–Rompin Rain Forest,* 1972–92
- S. Robert Aiken
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- Journal:
- Environmental Conservation / Volume 20 / Issue 2 / Summer 1993
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 August 2009, pp. 157-162
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The protracted dispute over the fate of the Endau-Rompin rain-forest in southern Peninsular Malaysia is outlined. Attention is focused on why a proposal to create an Endau-Rompin national park was eventually abandoned, on what has been done of late to protect the wilderness region, and on what has been learned from the dispute. The main points are as follows:
1. Endau-Rompin is one of the last-remaining extensive tracts of largely undisturbed rain-forest in southern Peninsular Malaysia.
2. The Third Malaysia Plan 1976–1980 incorporated an earlier proposal to create a national park in the Endau-Rompin region.
3. A controversy erupted in 1977 when the state govern ment of Pahang approved a logging concession in the core area of the proposed park.
4. Logging ceased in 1978, but in spite of the preparation of a preliminary management plan and the passage of the National Parks Act (both in 1980), a national park was not created.
5. The 1985–6 ‘Malaysian Heritage and Scientific Expedition’ to Endau—Rompin focused a great deal of public attention on the wilderness region, but still a national park was not created.
6. In mid-1987 it was announced that there would be two adjoining state parks, not a national park, in the Endau-Rompin region.
7. The proposal to create a national park came to nothing because Pahang and Johor were unwilling to surrender their jurisdiction over their respective components of the required land to the Federal Government, and because the latter made no attempt to acquire the land in the national interest.
8. A state park has been established in the Johor part of the wilderness region, but the promised adjoining state park in Pahang has yet to be established. It would appear that the two parts of the protected area will be managed separately, with eco-tourism as an important focus.
9. For more than fifteen years the Malayan Nature Society has played a key role in the struggle to save the wilderness region.
10. The Endau-Rompin dispute revealed that NGOs such as the Malayan Nature Society can play a key role in the environmental arena, that ever-increasing competition for scarce natural resources makes it increasingly unlikely that new protected areas will be established, and that the protection and management of Malaysia's natural heritage is greatly confounded by the constitutional division of powers between the Federal and state governments.
17 - Development, Environmental Quality and the Quality of Life in Peninsular Malaysia
- from PART II - ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
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- By Michael R. Moss, University of Guelph, S. Robert Aiken, Concordia University
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- Book:
- A Colloquium on Southeast Asian Studies
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 01 January 1981, pp 219-232
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Summary
Peninsular Malaysia is undergoing rapid economic development and modernization. As a nation Malaysia is recognized as being one of the world's most successful developing countries. This paper presents a series of case studies chosen to illustrate some of the human and ecological consequences of economic development and pays particular attention to the Malaysian Government's awareness of, and response to, the impact of environmental change.
When a discussion such as this is embarked upon by writers from the so-called “developed” world it is perhaps necessary to preface the ensuing discussion by a series of statements concerning economic development and environmental issues in general. Previously these statements have only been made within the context of Malaysia but they do provide a conspectus in which a more rational rather than an alarmist view of such issues may be made. They have relevance to most problems concerning the environmental consequences of economic development in both the “developing” and the “developed” worlds.
Firstly, it is now generally conceded that the viability of our environment can be irreversibly destroyed through slow, but unwise, ecological behaviour in everyday affairs. Ultimately, in the view of some alarmists, the end product of such behaviour may be as destructive as a dramatic nuclear holocaust. The environmental changes now taking place in countries such as Malaysia are often viewed in such alarmist terms. One need only look to the results of the ecological changes that have taken place in Amazonia Brazil to feel some sympathy for such views. Alarmist perspectives, however, must be tempered with a degree of caution. Any form of development must lead to some permanent change in that environment. Quite often, however, development can be regulated so that environmental impact is minimized, controlled, or effectively managed.
Secondly, few people would argue against economic policies that enhance standards of living and human welfare. In many cases, however, economic development is accompanied by insufficient environmental care and inadequate ecological knowledge.