Environmental Law and Policy Practices in Malaysia: An Empirical Study

Malaysia is one of the very environmentally rich countries in the world. At present, her traditions and heritage have been facing with numerous environmental problems such as air pollution, water pollution, exploitation of natural resources etc. Although, there are some historic states in Malaysia listed as a UNESCO Heritage Sites in the country. In order to cope with the environmental problems, the Government of Malaysia has passed some important environmental laws and policies such as the Environment Quality Act 1974 and its Regulations 1989, the Environmental Quality Order 1989, the Protection of Wildlife Act, the National Forestry Act 1984, the Fisheries Act 1985, the National Parks Act 1980, the International Environmental Laws etc. In addition to that, the Civil Law Act 1972, the Principles of the English Laws, the Federal Law, Shariah Laws, the Adat Temenggung (Malay Customary Laws) with some international environmental obligations etc; have also been implemented in order to attain sustainable environment and development in the country. But it regrets that these laws and policies have not been properly implemented due to some problems such as non -coordination, weak enforcement, customary attitudes etc. The study will examine potentialities and constraints of the environmental laws and policies in Malaysia consisting of 25 respondents in different criteria such as the professionals including foreigners, local people, old aged people, law enforcing agency, students etc., based on the primary and secondary sources through structured and unstructured in Melaka City, Malaysia. I. Background: Malaysia is historically one of the environmentally rich and abundant in natural resources and high biodiversity countries in the world consists of renewable and non-renewable resources that may include in every sectors of the country including the mineral resources, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, marine, poultry etc., without which we cannot live. It is one of the fastest growing economies in the ASEAN region. The country provides 41% of world supplies of natural rubber, 39% of hardwoods, 37% of palm oil and 32% of tin. But this rich environment along with natural resource with the heritage and traditions have been facing numerous problems such as climate change, biodiversity degradation, increasing scarcity unwise use of natural resources, hazardous waste management, growing rate of urbanization, weak enforcement and short term policy, instable and defective foreign policy, weak environmental governance, lack of technicalities, lack of environmental