Browsing by Author "WAN IZATUL ASMA WAN TALAAT"

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    HE LAWS AND POLICIES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF BIODIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA
    (Journal of Sustainability Science and Management, 2013) WAN IZATUL ASMA WAN TALAAT; NORHAYATI MOHD TAHIR; MOHD HAZMI MOHD RUSLI; MOHD LOKMAN HUSAIN
    Biodiversity conservation and management in a sustainable manner is crucial for Malaysia and having suffcient laws and policy providing for such is mandatory. As a Contracting Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Malaysia has undertaken to abide by what has been stipulated by the CBD and to endeavour to provide legislative, administrative and policy measures towards achieving the objectives and expectation of the CBD. Among the frst measures taken by Malaysia was the conduct of a country survey on biological diversity cumulating in the “Assessment of Biological Diversity in Malaysia” in 1997, which was immediately followed by the launching of the National Policy on Biological Diversity on 16th July 1998. Malaysia has also taken the steps to provide legislative implementation of the broad objectives of the Policy by putting in place three specifc legislationsnamely the Biosafety Act 2007 (Act 678), the Access to Genetic Resources Act and the National Biodiversity Council Act, both of which are still in the bill stage. This paper aims to provide an overview of the existing laws and policy in Malaysia that subscribe to the effort of sustainable management of natural resources and determine the suffciency of these laws and policy in providing for biodiversity conservation and management in Malaysia as sanctioned by the CBD. This research methodology employed aqualitative study carried out via content analysis on the data collected from the primary sources namely the National Policy of Biological Diversity (NPB) as well as the numerous federal legislations. The research tool used for data analysis is the Rule of Statutory Interpretation, which is the same tool used by the judges. The fndings reveal that the Vision Statement and the Policy Statement of the NPB undeniably emphasize Malaysia’s commitment towards the conservation and sustainable use of her biological diversity heritage for the sustainable progress of the nation. However, it is also found that the current legislative framework creates some restrictions, thereby causing some defciencies for an effective conservation and management of biological diversity in the country.
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    THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN MALAYSIAN BIOSAFETY LAW
    (Journal of Sustainability Science and Management, 2009) SHAIK. MD. NOORALAM BIN S.M. HUSSAIN; WAN IZATUL ASMA WAN TALAAT
    Sustainable biodiversity conservation and management has become a major global concern. As a developing country hoping to become a developed one by the year 2020, Malaysia faces a dichotomy between protecting its environment and executing its development master plan. The fear thatprotecting the environmentmay hinder development has in fact turned out to be dubious in lightofevidences, particularly in the developed countries, showing that environmental protection and development are mutually reinforcing. In the areas ofenvironmental management and pollution control, our imperfect science has nevertheless become a major source ofuncertainty in our society. The advance in biotechnology, especially in genetically-modified organisms or transgenic food has resulted in fear that the existing biodiversity will eventually be transgressed. While research will continue and, in some urgent cases, be intensified to provide answers and resolve uncertainties, decision-makers need to decide between allowing or prohibiting certain activities that are, in some respects, of immediate benefit to society but are nevertheless perceived as possibly harmful to the future ofthe environment albeit the absence ofany scientific proof. To deal with such predicaments, decision-makers in many jurisdictions and in many situations resort to the Precautionary Principle, which in essence allows decision-makers to err on the side ofcaution. As a Contracting Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (the Protocol), Malaysia has carried out, to a certain extent, her specific and broad obligations under both CBD and the Protocol by enacting the Biosafety Act 2007. This Act essentially incorporates many important matters covered by the CBD and the Protocol, giving these matters domestic legislative expression. Among such matters is the Precautionary Principle or perhaps the semblance of it. This paper is divided into four parts: Part I provides the introduction of how the Precautionary Principle comes into being as well as describes the methodology used in this research; Part II provides an explanation of the Precautionary Principle as it is most commonly understood taking into account the varied articulations of the Principle in many international regulatory regimes on the environment; Part III of the paper focusses on the critical analysis of the articulation of the Principle in the form of section 35 of the Biosafety Act 2007; and Part IV concludes the paper with observations on the extent the Malaysian articulation of the Principle has complied with or deviated from the defining characteristics of the Principle as explained in Part II.