o_19ko2dt161ng2j4e1tgnoqv1s45a.pdf

INDRANEIL DAS & NORSHAM YAAKOB (2007)
CONSERVATION ISSUES AND THE FUTURE
Human impact on the rainforests in Malaysia predates 600 years before present (Maloney
1985). However, since the 1970s, large-scale conversion of forest areas for agricultural use
has put great stress on the remaining tropical forests of the country (Aiken & Moss 1975;
Appanah 1998). West Malaysia, on account of its peninsular geometry and faunal similarity
to other large Sundaic islands, has an insular quality (Heaney 1991), potentially making species
more vulnerable to extinction than in typical continental situations. The forests of Borneo are
threatened primarily through conversion of forests to plantations and timber extraction (Primack
& Hall 1992).
As a megadiversity country, much of Malaysia’s biological diversity remains intimately
associated with her tropical rainforests. However, regions of exceptional concentration of
species within biodiversity hotspots are in montane regions, which are thus of great conservation
importance in supporting species with small geographic ranges, including rare and endemic
species. Other areas include poorly explored offshore islands, many of which continue to
have unexplored biological diversity. Protection of small areas may be a relatively more efficient
and cost-effective method for protecting regional biodiversity. A recent study in Amazonia,
comparing collection-based data and those on qualitative study of regional biodiversity show
little correspondence, emphasizing the need for more rigorous data collection and analysis to
identify and subsequently protect biodiversity hotspot areas.
Besides overt threats to the fauna, caused by changing land-use patterns and habitat destruction,
faunal decline in other parts of the world has also been reported from causes not completely
understood at present, and may stem from a combination of factors, including ozone layer
depletion, infection by virulent microorganisms, use of organochlorine pesticides and herbicides
and habitat fragmentation. Lack of data on abundance make estimates of levels of imperilment
of the Malaysian herpetofauna impossible, and serious attempts to remedy this may be needed
to understand factors that potentially threaten species and populations. This gap is suspected
to be a serious impediment to the conservation and management of an important component
of the country’s biodiversity.
The use of amphibians and reptiles to understand human impact on the environment is an
active area of study (review in Parent 1992; see also Bury et al. 1980), although there has been
little work done in tropical Asia. The systematic basis of these researches is of fundamental
importance, and much work has been conducted in adjacent regions, such as Thailand, and in
other Asian countries, such as Singapore, India, Sri Lanka and most recently, Vietnam. The
work in Sri Lanka is particularly significant, in leading to the increase of the amphibian fauna
from 53 to over 250 species (Pethiyagoda & Manamendra-Arachchi 1998; see also
Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda 2005; Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi 2005).
As many cryptic species have small ranges, non-detection of unique species has been linked
to their extinctions (see Daugherty et al. 1990).
Nearly 600 species of amphibians and reptiles have been recorded from Malaysia, although
this fauna is unequally distributed. An important challenge is to identify, at various spatial
scales, areas of exceptional concentrations of species, or so-called “hotspots” of biodiversity
of the herpetofauna (sensu Myers 1988; 1990). Important montane regions that hold promise
include the Titiwangsa (or Main) Range of Peninsular Malaysia, that comprises Gunung Noring
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