Based on the statement dated August 27 issued by the State Tourism, Culture, Environment, Plantation and Commodities Committee chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin, once the Pahang State Government enacted the Pahang State Parks Corporation Enactment 2021, the first step of the corporation’s plan is to take over Endau Rompin National Park. In the future, the state government will also hand over the management and operation of many natural attractions to the state parks corporation in the name of “sustainable management”.
However, I hope that the state government can learn from the lessons of poor management of natural attractions after development in Malaysia and abroad, especially in African countries, Nepal, India, and China, and thus treat this important matter with caution.
Many governments around the world often developed natural attractions on the spur of the moment without the support of in-depth studies and comprehensive scientific researches to conduct evaluation and planning. In the process, many non-renewable and extremely precious natural resources were damaged, and rare species of animals and plants were on the verge of extinction. As a result, the ecologies were actually destroyed in the name of “sustainable management”.
According to a survey conducted by the Chinese National Committee for Man and the Biosphere, under the concept of developing ecotourism, 22% of the environment in China’s nature reserves were destroyed, 11% of ecotourism resources were degraded, 44% of attractions were filled with garbage, 12% had water pollution, 11% had noise pollution, and 3% had air pollution. More importantly, developing attractions is always easier than maintaining, not to mention restoring natural attractions that are damaged. It is estimated that the cost of restoring nature is 10 times more than the cost of development.
Moreover, the state government’s “sustainable management” here is nothing more than a pseudo-proposition. With the current laws and regulations concerning the Forestry Bureau and nature reserves, the government can easily empower the Forestry Bureau and provide it with manpower and equipment.
The Forestry Bureau can then be well-prepared to delineate ecological red lines for important environmentally sensitive areas and strictly protect the areas. As such, why does the government empower a private agency to take over the natural attractions in the state?
Furthermore, it is a widely-known fact that there have been many incidents of uncontrolled development and mining in Pahang. Under such circumstances, the rent-seeking phenomenon, which is already rampant in the state, would exacerbate once the State Parks Corporation Enactment is enacted. Therefore, once power is conferred to a private entity to execute the operating model of so-called “sustainable development”, it opens the door to illegal or ill-intentioned corporations to exploit loopholes and further destroys the natural ecology in Pahang state.