PM shows he’s a true environmentalist
Jottings from Paris by WONG CHUN WAI
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Over the past few weeks, the Prime Minister has talked about protecting the country’s mangrove system and forestry – way ahead of the conference.
At the National Biodiversity Council meeting on Jan 13 in Malacca, he issued an order to civil servants – protect the environment, especially the water catchments and mangrove system.
Abdullah is well aware that the mangrove system is not just a buffer for natural disaster but protecting them has a major impact on the livelihood of our fishermen.
Fishermen in Penang, for example, have complained that the state only has 900ha mangrove swamps remaining, of which only half is considered a forest reserve.
They claimed that the destruction since 1966 amounted to 130ha of mangrove per year, affecting their livelihood as without the mangrove there will be no fish in the sea since they play a vital role as intermediaries between marine and land ecosystems.
The Conference of Biodiversity: Science and Governance, organised by the French government and sponsored by Unesco, has been given serious attention by him.
His emerging image as an environmentalist has surprised many in Putrajaya, but it should not be so as Malaysia is one of the countries in the world that ranks high on biodiversity.
Abdullah will join several top environment figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winner and Kenya’s Environment Vice-Minister Wangari Maathai and Harvard-renowned lecturer Edward O’Wilson at the conference.
Those attending the conference know the figures – the planet’s biodiversity is disappearing fast with an estimated one third of the total global species lost in the past three decades.
Biodiversity is the variety of all living things – the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genetic information and ecosystems they form.
For the small people, their livelihoods are also at risk. Farmers, small-scale fishermen, communities and indigenous people are facing rapid development and social and cultural impoverishment as their natural resources are depleted.
Against these people are corporate-led globalisation promoting large scale export-oriented agro industry; sustainable commercial logging companies, fish farms, huge mining operations and factories.
It is complex and the policy makers would readily admit that these issues cannot be resolved in one meeting.
Balancing the demands of development and protecting the environment is one tough juggling act for any leader.
Abdullah, who is the sole Asian leader at the conference, is expected to speak on this issue.
The Malaysian position is taken seriously as Kuala Lumpur had hosted the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting last February.
Malaysia also has a National Biodiversity Policy, which is a follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which outlined effective management of the environment.
It has over 80 action plans but Malaysian critics claim its implementation and lack of jurisdiction over state governments have reduced much of it into a mere framework.
For Unesco, this meeting is top priority after last week’s meeting on the tsunami in Kobe, Japan.
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