Land Degradation In Malaysia

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To control land degradation, the Malaysian government placed many legislations including such laws as environmental quality act (1974), land conservation act (1960), and national forestry act 1984. The Environmental Quality Act 1974 has various regulations including regulations on restrictions of soil pollution, restrictions of noise pollution, restrictions imposed on pollution of the atmosphere, restrictions of pollution of inland waters etc. that contributed mitigations of land degradation in Malaysia. Regarding this Act and the many regulations that it contain, 19 land-based developments such as agriculture, forestry, housing and infrastructures require providing an EIA report concerning on impacts of the development on environment.…show more content…
The main policies in the country are the national agriculture policy, national forestry policy and national urbanization policy. These policies together with the other mitigations have significantly contributed to the control of land degradation. The national agriculture policy (NAP) gives emphasis on increasing productivity by providing policies on the efficient use of land resources. Under this policy, the opening of new land is discouraged and rigorous efforts are made for increasing the efficient use of underutilized land, idle land and even marginal land such as ex-mining land and acid sulfate and BRIS soils. To use optimally the agricultural land, mixed farming involving planting of crops, livestock production and aquaculture is encouraged. Moreover, Integration of livestock in oil palm and rubber plantations is also promoted. NAP also contributed the preservation of forestland and protection of the environment through discouraging of new land…show more content…
The basis of the national forest policy is for establishing permanent reserved forest (PRF) to ensure sustainable forest management. Approximately 4.84 mha of forested land that comprises 36.8% of total land area in peninsular Malaysia are designated as PRF for sustainable management to benefit both present and future generations. Taking into account the multiple role of the forest, the PRF could be classified into functional classes such as timber production forest under sustained yield, flood control forest, soil protection forest, sanctuary forest for wildlife, water catchments, virgin jungle reserves, education forest, amenity forest and research forest for promoting the sustainable management of forests. However, 1.90 mha out from the 4.84 million hectares of permanent reserved forest or 39.2% of the total PRF are classified as protection forest and the remaining 2.94 mha is for production forest. In addition, the forestry department prohibits opening of new land in areas of 1000 masl for any form of development; hence this protects accelerated degradation process and subsequently preserves the fragile ecosystem of this

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