Safeguarding Natural and Cultural Heritage - Malaysia Journal of ...

Malaysian Journal of Environmental Management 12(1) (2011): 47-58
Suriati Ghazali 51
was employed in the agricultural, fisheries, hunting and forestry industries (Malaysia 1973). In
the late 1960s, under the New Economic Policy, the Malaysian government projected that
manufacturing would be the leading growth sector in 1990. After 1990, under the ‘Vision 2020’
initiative, the government continued to promote manufacturing as the main contributor to
economic growth, followed by the service sector. These policies implied a net shift in
employment out of agriculture. As a result, in 2000, only 14.4% of the population left to gain
employment in agriculture, hunting and forestry and 1.3% were employed in fisheries.
Manufacturing, on the other hand, employed 22.5% of the population. Other sectors, such as
sales, commerce and services which, when combined, accounted for 47% of the employed
population (Malaysia 2005).
In Penang, the State Government has actively developed and promoted industrial areas,
new towns, and urban renewal development. This has affected agricultural areas as well as
fishing villages. A number of traditional villages have been acquired for the purpose of
industrial, housing, urban, and hotel and resort development. (Ghazali 1999, 2000). The loss of
the natural environment is of great concern and led to the gazettement of Penang National Park
in 2003. The gazettement prevents the land from being cleared or developed for other means of
economic activity. Penang National Park covers an area of 9.9 square miles and it is the
smallest national park in Malaysia. This park contains a collection of habitats not found in other
parks in Malaysia – meromictic lake, wetlands, mangroves, mudflats, coral reefs and turtle
nesting beaches (Chan 2009; Ministry of Tourism Malaysia 2009).
The north of the island - Tanjung Tokong, Tanjung Bungah, Batu Feringgi and Teluk
Bahang (Figure 1) is renowned for its scenic beauty and white sandy beaches and therefore is
an attractive prospect for coastal tourism. Coastal tourism in Penang started as early as the
1950s, however it was slow to grow. In the 1960s and the 1970s there was a dramatic increase
in coastal tourism in Penang (Wong 1998), which was due to the increase in the number of
foreign tourists to Malaysia especially from the West, and the increase of infrastructural
support provided by the public sector and the active participation of the private sector. From the
1980s onwards, the typical resort in Penang has consisted in apartment-like blocks located near
the beach, well-equipped with recreational amenities and facilities; often including a swimming
pool, and ‘exclusive’ resorts with distinctive architecture (Tan 1995). Increasingly, resorts have
offered a wider range of facilities and recreational activities. Since the 1990s industry forecasts
for the development of coastal tourism in Southeast Asia has been optimistic (Wong 1998), and
in 2009, 23.6 million tourists arrived in Malaysia and Penang received 1.347 million of them,
of which 44% were international tourists (Tourism Malaysia 2011; Penang State Government
2010a).
The development of hotels and resorts in Penang has displaced some traditional fishing
communities. A few Malay villages are still in existence in the coastal area (Horton et al. 2008)
and are trapped between the resorts and spaces of urban development. The displacement of
traditional communities poses a threat to natural and cultural heritage, as well as to long term
environmental sustainability, which may be undermined by industrial development (Ooi &
Shaw 2009; Ghazali et al. 2010). Moreover, hundreds of traditional fishing communities are
suffering from dwindling incomes as high-power trawler boats scoop up the best part of the
catch (Khor 1987).
On the other hand, environmental degradation, hazards and uncertainties have affected the
fishing families in Teluk Bahang, and their economic dependence on fishery resources has led
them to becoming poor. For example, the disaster caused by tsunami following the earthquake
in Acheh on 26 December 2004 has affected 7500 fishermen on the west coastal areas of
Malaysia, including those of Teluk Bahang (FAO 2006). The loss and damage of their boats,
houses, and fishing equipment, has reduced them to poorer position compared to pre-tsunami
period. Environmental hazards as such have led to strategies and programmes being introduced
in order to help the fishing communities. These include motivation programme for the fishing