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Local Peoples’ Appreciation on and Contribution to Conservation of Peatland Swamp Forests: Experience from Peninsular Malaysia

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Abstract

Peatland swamp forests (PSF) deliver a range of beneficial, but often undervalued ecosystem services. In this paper we examined local peoples’ appreciation on the values of PSF and their contribution to conservation. The study was carried out by interviewing 100 respondents living in adjacent to North Selangor PSF and holding three focus group discussions and a few key-informants’ interviews following participatory rural appraisal and contingent valuation methods. Respondents appreciated PSF for direct values including timber, non-timber forest products, source of fish, and water for agriculture. They reported environmental values of PSF like flood prevention, biodiversity conservation, fresh air, soil fertility, perennial water source, and reduction of storm damages. They also reported several health and cultural benefits including sources of medicinal plants, fresh food, and agro-tourism. The monetary values of some benefits were estimated as USD 128/month/family (for fish), USD 128/month/family (agro-tourism) and USD 159,070/year (irrigation). Although direct benefits from PSF were minimal, respondents sincerely wanted to contribute to PSF conservation through participation in community-based rehabilitation project, patrolling and fire protection, tree planting, cash donation, supplying seedlings, and joining in awareness creation programme. The intrinsic values and peoples’ enthusiasm for PSF conservation suggest a community-based approach for sustainable PSF management.

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Notes

  1. A compartment is the smallest forest management unit (e.g., land area) with recognizable boundary, usually homogeneous in size and species composition. The RMFR has 101 forest compartments (Selangor State Forestry Department 2014)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Geographical, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Tapan Kumar Nath

  2. Selangor State Forestry Department, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mohd Puat Bin Dahalan

  3. Global Environment Centre, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

    Faizal Parish & Nagarajan Rengasamy

Authors
  1. Tapan Kumar Nath
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  2. Mohd Puat Bin Dahalan
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  3. Faizal Parish
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  4. Nagarajan Rengasamy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tapan Kumar Nath.

Additional information

Field work was supported by the Toyota Foundation Research Grant (D14-R-0130) and Faculty of Science, UNMC pump priming fund (P049–15)

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Nath, T.K., Dahalan, M.P.B., Parish, F. et al. Local Peoples’ Appreciation on and Contribution to Conservation of Peatland Swamp Forests: Experience from Peninsular Malaysia. Wetlands 37, 1067–1077 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0941-1

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