Malaysia, cries for help

-Another Beautiful City Mankind Starts to Destroy Truly Asia, Malaysia lives up to its slogan. Truly a remarkable paradise this country was and still rising, Malaysia has become one of the world’s favorite for travel enthusiasts. and rainforests, mountains and minarets, skycrapers and sampans; are only few to more fun Malaysia can offer. If you are a city tripper or a nature lover, Malaysia is a great option for travelers. Considered as one of the ‘Asian tiger’, Malaysia paved its way to becoming one of the travelling capital by offering two countries for the price of one.

Peninsular Malaysia, bordering Thailand at the southern end of the Malay peninsula, and East Malaysia, the northern half of the island of Borneo, which pushes up against Indonesia and Brunei. Malaysia enjoyed remarkable growth over the last few decades, with industrialization, agriculture and tourism playing leading roles in this success story. Tigers may be fierce but when nature calls, no one can escape her. A tropical natural bounty like Malaysia, can she keep her treasures when the one who truly owns this treasure steel it from her? And worse, what if her people are the ones who are destroying her; could she escape it or will face her breakdown?

Despite a relatively positive environmental record, Malaysia faces problems of deforestation, pollution of inland and marine waters, soil and coastal erosion, overfishing and coral reef destruction, along with air pollution, water pollution and the problem of waste disposal. Problems that in fact can be avoided, problems that mankind created. Malaysia hold tropical rainforest, as well as peat swamp forests, both are now threatened by no other than human activities. Oil palm plantations, logging and mining, forests fires and tourism are the major causes of deforestations. It terrorizes animals causing massive deaths that increase the number of endangered species, such as orangutan, which lives only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Deforestation is just one of the problems Malaysia is facing. It is a cycle, a chain reaction, and in effect of it–flood! Management has been inclined to solving flood problems, little did they know that it is just them creating their own problems. No deforestation means no flood. Just like what happened to Lower Kinabatangan Floodplains in Sabah where flooding also intensified. In this area, stretching along the northeastern coast of Borneo, forests have been reduced to scattered pieces, while endangered animals such as elephants have lost their natural homes.

Just like what I have mentioned earlier, it is a chain reaction, as a result of flooding, remaining forest is fragmented. And because of this, elephants are forced to move through plantations and smallholdings to get from one patch to another. They prefer to use forest on dry ground, so during floods they are also forced into agricultural land, sometimes causing considerable damage.

And as a result, mankind suffers in the end. Pollution, another mankind’s assault to Mother Nature and another factor that causes flooding. Malaysia was once least polluted urban environments in Asia, however, with the rapid industrial development of recent years, and an increase in urbanization and vehicle use, air and water pollution are of growing concern.