Global Social Equity? Should the rich pays for rainforests?

by Eugene Pek, 22 October 2008, UTAR Sg Long

The issue of sustainable development is a question of efficiency in ecological management. Malaysia as a resource rich nation is always the focal point of discussion when comes to natural resources sustainability. World bodies are exerting pressure on the country to preserve and conserve as many rainforests as possible but they never talk about who should be paying for all these resource maintenance costs. For a developing country like Malaysia to maintain her forest areas bearing in mind that 65 percent of land are covered by rich and dense tropical forests is a mouthful and enduring mission.

There are several world renowned national parks in the country like the National Park, more known as Taman Negara, Bako National Park, Gunung Mulu National Park and others that require huge conservation funds from the state governments. Taman Negara, the world oldest tropical rainforest is mostly located in the relatively poorer state of Pahang, whom pays for the conservation of the park. On one hand the state needs to be efficient in natural resources management but on the other hand the issue of social equity has to be addressed. Who shall pay these costs? It looks like the West and environmental NGOs value these parks more than the locals and as such these parks are open to probable development for commercial reasons in the future when funds are inadequate and growth for the quest of money dominates the passion for environmental services. It will not be surprising that a day will come where Taman Negara is developed by the Pahang state government for economic growth related motives.

At this juncture, the discussion aims to highlight the need for a biodiversity market to create a world trust fund that would aid the high conservation costs of national parks in the country. The fund can channel monetary aids to the state government to ensure ling-term sustainability of those parks which are dearly valued by the world. Chichilnisky, who proposed and wrote the global trading of carbon emissions with preferential treatment for poor countries which became part of the Kyoto Protocol adopted by 166 nations in December 1997, noted in her environmental sustainability conference lecture at Monash University Malaysia in December 2007 that she is working on a similar model for biodiversity market. With this market in place in the near future it will be excellent to see preferential treatment being given to the developing countries like Malaysia to preserve the ecological assets for long term sustainable growth in tandem with agricultural multifunctionality. With the issue of equity probably resolved with the creation of the biodiversity market, efficiency in the world environmental management is made more feasible.