Friday March 31, 2006
Stress on vital role Mother Nature plays
”DO YOU know that the environment plays a crucial role in providing ecological services to all of us for our very survival?”
This was the first question local conservationist Angela Hijjas asked when we sat down in her cosy sofa in Rimbun Dahan.
It wasn't a question to test the writer's knowledge but more to stress the very important role Mother Nature plays and the “goods and services” she provides to mankind.
“I feel that conservation is absolutely the most important challenge in the world today, where scarce resources are under stress from growing human populations. The natural world is undefended and terribly vulnerable. I have to do what I can.
“Our forests and rivers provide us with numerous ecological services but we don't seem to appreciate them.
“The Government needs to recognise the enormous value that natural systems deliver to the economy and make sure that these ecological assets are protected,” she said.
Angela said it was important that the government recognises all these in the 9th Malaysia Plan.
“States need revenue from logging and also to provide jobs for the people.
“One way of encouraging them to leave crucial forest areas alone would be to provide financial assistance from the federal government to compensate the states to forego the profits of logging, for example,” she said, adding that the well-compiled National Physical Plan was a good tool to identify areas to be conserved.
Angela noted that Johor had been protecting their forests as the state government derives “a benefit from selling water to Singapore”.
As such, she said there is no need for them to clear their forests for timber in the area.
Alternatively, the oil and gas industry, according to Angela, should set aside a fixed proportion of their revenue to support environmental causes and assist the states in achieving this.
Enforcement is also at the top of Angela's mind as an issue to be seriously addressed in the next five years.
“We need much stiffer sentences. In fact, I support mandatory jail terms, as our biodiversity is much more valuable than it was 35 years ago: we have so much less of it now than we had then, and inflation has greatly reduced the impact of fines,” she said.
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