Local peoples’ appreciation on and contribution to conservation of peatland swamp forests: experience from Peninsular Malaysia

Authors:
Tapan Kumar Nath, Mohd Puat Bin Dahalan Faizal Parish and Nagarajan Rengasamy

Book:
Proceedings of the 15th International Peat Congress

Venue:
Kuching

Keywords:
community-participation, direct-benefits, indirect-values, peoples-contribution

Documentfile:
ipc16p577-581a096nath.dahalan.etal_.pdf

Summary:

SUMMARY

Over recent years, industrial plantation development on peatland and / or peat swamp forests (PSF) areas has created intense debate due to its potentially adverse social and environmental effects. In this paper we examined local peoples‘ appreciation on the values of PSF and how they can contribute to its conservation and protection. The study was carried out by interviewing 100 respondents and holding two focus group discussions in some degraded PSF areas in Perak and North Selangor Peat Swamp Forest. The study adopted participatory rural appraisal and contingent valuation methods. The respondents appreciated PSF for direct values including timber (6%…