Malaysia to Draw up Guidelines on Wetlands Use
7/27/99
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Title: Malaysia to Draw up Guidelines on Wetlands Use
Source: Xinhua
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 27, 1999
KUALA LUMPUR (July 27) XINHUA - Malaysia will impose some form of
control on the development of strategic forest areas so as to protect
the country's ecosystem, Science, Technology and Environment Minister
Law Hieng Ding said Tuesday.
Guidelines would be drawn up for forest conservation, safeguarding
water catchment areas and maintaining the required water table in
forests, the Malaysian national news agency Bernama quoted the
minister as saying in the northern state of Pulau Pinang.
He said the rapid transformation of strategic tropical forest areas,
especially wetlands, into developed areas had disturbed the
ecosystem.
Over the past 10 to 15 years, Southeast Asia had experienced an
increasing rate of development that had led to degradation of
wetlands, including peat swamps, he told the three-day International
Conference and Workshop on Tropical Peat Swamps being held in Pulau
Pinang.
Peat swamp areas in this region were estimated at 30 to 45 million
hectares, or about 60 percent of the world's tropical peat lands and
one-tenth of the global peat lands, he said.
According to him, peat forest fires throughout the region in 1997/98
burnt nearly 1 million hectares of peat lands and contributed to
transboundary problems such as haze and air pollution.