Public Perceptions on the Importance of Ecosystem Services From Vulnerable Forest: A Case Study of Ampang Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia

Mei Yin Gai, Muhammad Luqman Hassan, Arlixcya Vinnisa Anak Empidi, Umi Farishaanum Juraimi, Nurashikin Mohd Noorazman, Diana Emang

Abstract

Forest reserve gazettement affects the sustainability of forests by altering their ecological function and threatening human livelihood. This study examines a recently degazetted forest, using a survey among 120 local respondents living near Ampang Forest Reserve (AFR) in Selangor, Malaysia. The simple random sampling technique was implemented to reduce sampling bias, and descriptive and correlation statistics were used in the analysis. The study aims (i) to examine the public perceived importance of forest ecosystem services from AFR, (ii) to determine public awareness of a range of environmental threat levels towards AFR’s ecosystem services, and (iii) to assess public agreement on conservation measures that could increase protection and ensure the sustainability of ecosystem services from the remaining area of AFR. The result revealed all ecosystem services were perceived as important, and the public was mostly aware of the environmental threats. At the same time, conservation measures should be implemented to protect and ensure the sustainability of ecosystem services from AFR. This study provides insight into public perceptions of the importance of forest ecosystem services derived from vulnerable forest reserves. It indicates the relevance and need for better protection in high-risk forest areas as local livelihood depends on its significant ecological roles.

References

Abubakar, I. R., Maniruzzaman, K. M., Dano, U. L., AlShihri, F. S., AlShammari, M. S., Ahmed, S. M. S., Al-Gehlani, W. A. G., & Alrawaf, T. I. (2022). Environmental sustainability impacts of solid waste management practices in the global South. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (19), 12717. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912717

Adnan, N., & Mamat, M. P. (2020). Spatial analysis model assessing habitat quality of Selangor. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 549(1), 012049. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/549/1/012049

Arcury, T. A., & Christianson, E. H. (1993). Rural-urban differences in environmental knowledge and actions. The Journal of Environmental Education, 25(1), 19–25. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/00958964.1993.9941940

Bennett, E. M., Peterson, G. D., & Gordon, L. J. (2009). Understanding relationships among multiple ecosystem services. Ecology Letters, 12(12), 1394–1404. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01387.x

Biggs, R., Schlüter, M., Biggs, D., Bohensky, E. L., BurnSilver, S., Cundill, G., Dakos, V., Daw, T. M., Evans, L. S., Kotschy, K., Leitch, A. M., Meek, C., Quinlan, A., Raudsepp-Hearne, C., Robards, M. D., Schoon, M. L., Schultz, L., & West, P. C. (2012). Toward principles for enhancing the resilience of ecosystem services. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 37, 421–448. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-051211-123836

Binyanya, M. R., Mugwima, N. B., Karanja, D., & Mbiti, S. (2022). Sustainable urban forest conservation: Assessing public attitudes towards urban forests in Nairobi City. Current Urban Studies, 10(4), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.4236/cus.2022.104039

Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310555

Chen, W., Ladevèze, N., Hu, W., Ou, S., & Bourdot, P. (2019). Comparison between the methods of adjustment and constant stimuli for the estimation of redirection detection thresholds. In P. Bourdot, V. Interrante, L. Nedel, N. Magnenat-Thalmann, & G. Zachmann (Eds.), EuroVR 2019: Virtual reality and augmented reality. Lecture notes in computer science (pp. 226–245). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31908-3_14

De Meo, I., Cantiani, M. G., Ferretti, F., & Paletto, A. (2011). Stakeholders' perception as support for forest landscape planning. International Journal of Ecology, 2011, 685708. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/685708

Fadli, M. (2021, December 26). PM points finger at EKVE project as a cause of floods. Free Malaysia Today. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/12/26/pm-points-finger-at-ekve-project-as-a-cause-of-floods/

Ferreira, L. M. R., Esteves, L. S., de Souza, E. P., & dos Santos, C. A. C. (2019). Impact of the urbanisation process in the availability of ecosystem services in a tropical ecotone area. Ecosystems, 22, 266282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0270-0

[FAO] Food and Agriculture Organization, [ECE] Educational Credential Evaluators, & [ILO] International Labour Organization. (2000). Public participation in forestry. In Europe and North America. Report of the team of specialists on participation in forestry. Sectoral Activities Department International Labour Office.

Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia. (2023). Forestry statistics. Retrieved from https://www.forestry.gov.my/en/2016-06-07-02-53-46/2016-06-07-03-12-29

Forrest, J. L., Mascia, M. B., Pailler, S., Abidin, S. Z., Araujo, M. D., Krithivasan, R., & Riveros, J. C. (2015). Tropical deforestation and carbon emissions from protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD). Conservation Letters, 8(3), 153161.

Gendron, M., Roberson, D., van der Vyver, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (2014). Perceptions of emotion from facial expressions are not culturally universal: Evidence from a remote culture. Emotion, 14(2), 251.

Goodwin, L. D., & Leech, N. L. (2006). Understanding correlation: Factors that affect the size of r. The Journal of Experimental Education, 74(3), 249–266. https://doi.org/10.3200/JEXE.74.3.249-266

Hasan, S. S., Zhen, L., Miah, M. G., Ahamed, T., & Samie, A. (2020). Impact of land use change on ecosystem services: A review. Environmental Development, 34, 100527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2020.100527

Hunter, L. M., & Brehm, J. (2003). Qualitative insight into public knowledge of, and concern with, biodiversity. Human Ecology, 31(2), 309–320.

Lin, J. C., Chiou, C. R., Chan, W. H., & Wu, M. S. (2021). Public perception of forest ecosystem services in Taiwan. Journal of Forest Research, 26(5), 344–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/13416979.2021.1911023

Mayberry, K. (2017, October 19). Road building threatens forests, water supplies in Kuala Lumpur area. Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/road-building-threatens-forests-water-supplies-in-kuala-lumpur-area/

Mundher, R., Abu Bakar, S., Maulan, S., Mohd Yusof, M. J., Osman, S., Al-Sharaa, A., & Gao, H. (2022). Exploring awareness and public perception towards the importance of visual aesthetics for preservation of permanent forest reserve (PFR) in Malaysia. Land, 11(8), 1280. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11081280

n.d. (1998, January 1). Malaysia national biodiversity policy 1998. Retrieved from http://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/mal28769.pdf

Nemoto, T., & Beglar, D. (2014). Developing Likert-scale questionnaires. In N. Sonda & A. Krause (Eds.), JALT2013 conference proceedings (pp. 18). Tokyo: JALT.

Pan, Y., Che, Y., Marshall, S., & Maltby, L. (2020). Heterogeneity in ecosystem service values: Linking public perceptions and environmental policies. Sustainability, 12(3), 1217. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031217

Pecl, G. T., Araújo, M. B., Bell, J. D., Blanchard, J., Bonebrake, T. C., Chen, I. C., Clark, T. D., Colwell, R. K., Danielsen, F., Evengård, B., Falconi, L., Ferrier, S., Frusher, S., Garcia, R. A., Griffis, R. B., Hobday, A. J., Janion-Scheepers, C., Jarzyna, M. A., Jennings, S., …, & Williams, S. E. (2017). Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Science, 355(6332), eaai9214. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aai9214

Permatasari, N., Yovi, E. Y., & Kuncahyo, B. (2023). Mitigating heat exposure: Exploring the role of knowledge, risk perception, and precautionary behavior. Jurnal Sylva Lestari, 12(1), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.23960/jsl.v12i1.773

Qin, S., Golden Kroner, R. E., Cook, C., Tesfaw, A. T., Braybrook, R., Rodriguez, C. M., Poelking, C., & Mascia, M. B. (2019). Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement as a threat to iconic protected areas. Conservation Biology, 33(6), 1275–1285. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13365

Ranacher, L., Lähtinen, K., Järvinen, E., & Toppinen, A. (2017). Perceptions of the general public on forest sector responsibility: A survey related to ecosystem services and forest sector business impacts in four European countries. Forest Policy and Economics, 78, 180–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.01.016

Ratnasingam, J., Vacalie, C., Sestras, A. F., & Ioras, F. (2014). Public perception of forestry practices in Malaysia. Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca, 42(1), 280285. https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha4219542

Renó, V., Novo, E., & Escada, M. (2016). Forest fragmentation in the lower Amazon floodplain: Implications for biodiversity and ecosystem service provision to riverine populations. Remote Sensing, 8(11), 886. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8110886

Rosli, F. A. (2021, November 23). Projek EKVE antara punca banjir lumpur. Berita Harian. https://www.bharian.com.my/berita/nasional/2021/11/891219/projek-ekve-antara-punca-banjir-lumpur?fbclid=IwAR3S9Wu7tNC4KPhr0A1_hpyCzRszde9_Yz4kZEkJGey1YuEoeUqMo2S1tk4#.YZ0DLHi5aUw.whatsapp

Santiago, C. (2014, July 5). A real threat to Selangor water supply. Malaysia Kini. https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/267765

Schlittenlacher, J., & Ellermeier, W. (2021). Continuous magnitude production of loudness. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 635557. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635557

Slovic, P. (1987). Perception of risk. Science, 236(4799), 280–285. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.3563507

Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology. How to Choose a Sampling Technique for Research, 2016. http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3205035

Tan-Soo, J. S., Adnan, N., Ahmad, I., Pattanayak, S. K., & Vincent, J. R. (2016). Econometric evidence on forest ecosystem services: deforestation and flooding in Malaysia. Environmental and resource economics, 63, 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-014-9834-4

Tavakol, M., & Dennick, R. (2011). Making sense of Cronbach's alpha. International Journal of Medical Education, 2, 53. https://doi.org/10.5116%2Fijme.4dfb.8dfd

Tobias, S. (2013). Preserving ecosystem services in urban regions: Challenges for planning and best practice examples from Switzerland. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 9(2), 243–251. https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1392

Turpin, A., Scholer, F., Stefano, M., & M, Eddy (2015). The benefits of magnitude estimation relevance assessments for information retrieval evaluation. SIGIR’15: Proceedings of the 38th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, 2015, 565–574. https://doi.org/10.1145/2766462.2767760

[UNESCO] United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2022). Humans and nature: Exploring relationships. The Blue Dot, 15. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381497

United Nations. (1992, June, 314). Rio declaration on environment and development [Paper presentation]. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio, Brazil. https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_CONF.151_26_Vol.I_Declaration.pdf

World Bank. (2023). Forest area (% of land area)–Malaysia [Data file]. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.FRST.ZS?locations=MY

[WWF] World Wildlife Fund Malaysia. (2022). Forest. Retrieved from https://www.wwf.org.my/our_work/forest/

Yip, Y. T. (2014, February 24). New planned expressway to cut through state park. The Star. https://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2014/02/24/Forest-at-risk-New-planned-expressway-to-cut-through-state-park/

Yovi, E. Y., Nastiti, A., & Kuncahyo, B. (2023). Heat-related knowledge, risk perception, and precautionary behavior among Indonesian forestry workers and farmers: Implications for occupational health promotion in the face of climate change impacts. Forests, 14(7), 1455. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14071455

Zakkak, S., Kakalis, E., Radović, A., Halley, J. M., & Kati, V. (2014). The impact of forest encroachment after agricultural land abandonment on passerine bird communities: The case of Greece. Journal for Nature Conservation, 22(2), 157–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2013.11.001

Zolkepli, F (2021, December 27). Ensure no repeated mistakes in dealing with floods, says Lee Lam Thye. The Star. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/12/27/ensure-no-repeated-mistakes-in-dealing-with-floods-says-lee-lam-thye

Authors

Mei Yin Gai
Muhammad Luqman Hassan
Arlixcya Vinnisa Anak Empidi
Umi Farishaanum Juraimi
Nurashikin Mohd Noorazman
Diana Emang
dianaemang@upm.edu.my (Primary Contact)
GaiM. Y., HassanM. L., Anak EmpidiA. V., JuraimiU. F., Mohd NoorazmanN., & EmangD. (2024). Public Perceptions on the Importance of Ecosystem Services From Vulnerable Forest: A Case Study of Ampang Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia. Jurnal Manajemen Hutan Tropika, 30(1), 61. https://doi.org/10.7226/jtfm.30.1.61

Article Details

The Role of Natural Capital in Surviving Periods of Crisis: A Case Study of the Nglanggeran Village Community

Lasti Nur Satiani, Titi Susilowati Prabawa, Aldi Herindra Lasso
Abstract View : 413
Download :5737

Environment Degradation and Rural Livelihood of Mulawarman Community in Indonesia

Agus Tianur, Pamerdi Giri Wiloso, Royke Roberth Siahanenia, Yohanes Budi Sulistioadi
Abstract View : 566
Download :791