Living Land

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Land use and the restoration of degraded land

towards sustainable development in Malaysia

Omar Osman, Kamarulazizi Ibrahim, Kanayathu Koshy, Fauziah Ahmad

and Ahmad Shukri Yahaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

ith a rising population and increasing

destruction of fertile soil and agricultural

land, the need to promote prudent land

management has become an integral part of sustain-

able development. Although land degradation leading to

desertification is not a serious issue in Malaysia, there

is increasing concern about landslide and slope-land

stability in the context of development activities linked

to construction and cultivation.

Taking those negatives and developing a positive approach

that looks at rainfall variability, climate change, risk assess-

ment, slope monitoring and computer-aided slope stability

scenario generation are key priorities. Within the new

vision of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to transform

higher education for a sustainable tomorrow, a risk-

reduced development pathway that integrates sustainability

challenges in natural sectors with cross-sectoral areas such

as climate change, population and production has been

gaining ground.

Developed as a result of the United Nations Conference

on Environment and Development 1992,

the United

Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

is a unique instrument that has brought attention to the land

degradation affecting some of the most vulnerable people

and ecosystems in the world. The UNCCD benefits from

the largest membership of the three Rio conventions and is

increasingly recognized as an agreement that can make an

important contribution to the achievement of sustainable

development and poverty reduction.

In order to attract

more attention to climate-compatible development, the

United Nations launched the Decade on Deserts and the

Fight against Desertification (UNDDD).

During the launch

of the decade, the United Nations Secretary General Ban

Ki-moon said: “Continued land degradation — whether

from climate change, unsustainable agriculture or poor

management of water resources — is a threat to food secu-

rity, leading to starvation among the most acutely affected

communities and robbing the world of productive land.”

This summarises the issues and connects CCD to other

development goals such as the Millennium Development

Goals and by extension the Sustainable Development Goals

to be finalized at the United Nations in September 2015.

Based on the evapotranspiration to rainfall ratio of 0.005-

0.65, most of Malaysia does not fall under the definition of

deserts. However, Malaysia is not devoid of land degrada-

tion problems, associated mostly with forest harvesting, hill

and agricultural development, and mineral exploitation. In

order to manage challenges in these areas, the mitigation

measures taken mainly involve policies, legislation, guide-

lines, soil conservation practices and awareness campaigns.

The following is based on Malaysia’s reports to UNCCD

in 2006 and 2014. Three major policies worth mention-

ing in this regard are the National Forest Policy (NFP),

National Agricultural Policy (NAP)

and National

Urbanization Policy (NUP).

The implementation of NAP

involves measures such as: not opening new lands, using

underutilized and marginal lands, mixed farming, integra-

tion of livestock into plantation forests (rubber and oil

palm), and soil mapping. Under NFP the measures taken

include setting aside 4.84 million hectares as permanent

reserved forest, sustainable management of forest through

classification into protection and production forest, forest

for timber, soil protection, flood control, water catchment,

sanctuary for wildlife, virgin jungle, amenity, and research

purposes. As part of NUP, the Department of Town and

Country Planning in collaboration with various other

departments and agencies has developed a multisectoral

sustainable land use master plan for the whole country.

National development follows these plans and practices.

Professor Dato’ Omar Osman, USM Vice-Chancellor and Professor

Kamarulazizi Ibrahim, Director of the CGSS discuss USM’s Five-Year Plan

for sustainability implementation

Image: USM 2015

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