Malaysia: Managing the Environment in a Rapidly Developing Society

Abstract

As one of the most prosperous countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia has often acted as a leader in developing environmental standards and management strategies for the region.¹ Anywhere on the surface of the earth development and modernization will be associated with environmental change. Environmental change inevitably means changing the relationship between human populations and their environment. Ultimately the goal of development must be to achieve a harmonious relationship between populations and their environment. This objective has now become conceptualized by the term “sustainable development”. Sustainable developing “seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future.”² The concept brings economy and environment inextricably together such that “…long-term economic growth depends on a healthy environment, so the maintenance of a healthy environment requires continued economic development”.³ Whether or not it is possible to achieve such goals, or even to understand the means of reaching these goals, developing nations such as Malaysia, have had a great deal of success in establishing their own environmental standards as they have developed. This is contrary to a common perception held in the “North”, and particularly in North America, that development in regions such as Southeast Asia is leaping ahead in a manner that will inevitably lead to severe environmental change and destruction of global dimensions. In Malaysia, and other developing nations, however, the situation is often more controlled than in many “developed” nations.