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Man's Impact on the Natural Environment of Peninsular Malaysia: Some Problems and Human Consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

S. Robert Aiken  and
Michael R. Moss
S. Robert Aiken
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; formerly of the Department of Geography, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Michael R. Moss
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
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Extract

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.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , Winter 1976 , pp. 273 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1976

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