so first of all, i'll be talking about what ecotourism is and then the principles of ecotourism. and after that, i'll be introducing a few places in malaysia where ecotourism is being established. so what is ecotourism? ecotourism can be defined as the responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of locals. ecotourism is all about uniting conservation, communities, and sustaining the tourism. what i mean by this is, people who take part in ecotourism activities must implement ecotourism principles such as:
minimizing negative impacts on the host community, increasing environmental and cultural awareness and respect towards locals, providing positive experiences for both visitors and the local community, providing direct financial benefits, providing financial benefits that would empowerment the local people and raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental and social climate. so now i will be looking into the top ecotourism sites in malaysia. so the first one is mulu caves national park, which is located in sarawak. this is the home to one of the longest networks of caves in the world.
here lies the world's largest underground chamber, the sarawak chamber capable of accommodating forty boeing 747 airplanes. this is also enriched with other attraction such as the world's biggest cave passage, deer cave, clear water cave and the longest cave is south east asia. this is also the home to a thousands of bats and caves. the second one is royal belum state park which is located in perak. this is also said be a 130 million years old. the vast virgin jungle, relatively untouched by human exploration is even older than the greatest amazon and congo rain forests.
the third site we have highlighted is taman negara. taman negara is the first and the oldest official protected area in the country originally named king george v national park. this is the national park of malaysia. taman negara is actually one of the oldest rain-forests in the world, estimated to be a 130 million years old. the abundance and diversity of nature here is phenomenal, making it one of the world's most complex and rich ecosystems. there are a lot of popular activities in the area such as jungle trekking and river cruise provided for the people who visit to taman negara.
the last and the fourth ecotourism spot that we have highlighted in our project is forest reserch institute malaysia which is also known as frim this is located in selango it is very popular among the nature lovers and just located 30 minutes away from the city center kuala lumpur. most famous of the activities among eco lovers could be doing bird watching, canopy walk and walkway. the walkway system, suspended between the trees are said to be 30 meters above ground level and it gives a spectacular view to the eco lovers. number one, wwf - world wildlife fund malaysia
it was established as a national conservation trust on 13 january 1972. wwf-malaysia began as a humble two person-organisation. they ran more than 90 projects, covering a diverse range of environmental protection and nature conservation work in malaysia. wwf-malaysia focuses its conservation work on large-scale priority areas that encompass a wide range of wildlife and ecological systems. their conservation work focuses on species, forests, marine life, environmental education and policy making. wwf-malaysia has been involved in policy work for 40 years. to be effective in policy advocacy work, they adopt various approaches
and optimise on effective partnerships to promote the establishment of policies, plans, programs and legislation that integrate environmental concerns for sustainable development. the next ngo is malaysian nature society. mns’ have pioneered conservation in malaysia for the last seven decades, making a difference through habitat conservation and environmental education. throughout the joint efforts of their members, partners and supporters, mns has become a strong voice for the protection of malaysian natural heritage. their vision is "for malaysia’s natural heritage and rich biological diversity to be effectively protected,
managed and conserved for the benefit and appreciation of all malaysians." their mission is "to promote the conservation of malaysia's natural heritage." and their motto is "know nature, value nature and act for nature". mns is guided by at 12-year strategic plan which was proposed in 2008 to steer the development of the society and to move it toward fulfilling its vision and mission. next i'll be talking about the international funding agencies that promotes ecotourism in malaysia. german technical cooperation (gtz) the gtz is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. the gtz is organised as a private company owned by the german federal government.
their areas of work involves 30 development activities. some of them are: water, waste management, and resource conservation; education and science; multi-sectoral urban and rural development; health, population, and nutrition; agro-policies, agricultural service systems; energy and transport; financial systems and the promotion of small scale enterprises; and environmental protection.
so i'll be focusing on the strengths. malaysia is a well-established tourism destination with a variety of natural attractions and adventure for ecotourism. the local people are strongly supporting the needs of ecotourism in this region. and then there is a good number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting this destination. moreover, malaysia has one of the unique culture of the local people and then it has already existing tourist infrastructure. for internal strengths, there is the existence of tourist facilitators
and authentic and rich cultural structures. for the infrastructure to be based on natural resources, so for another strength, is the scenic beauty coupled with pleasant weather. and it is also bounded by the iconic himalayan mountain range. and for some information, its variety of landscape, magnificent river networks, wildlife sanctuaries established trekking routes are really hospitable for people. so, as we all know there is also a significant number of locals joining the labor force in every city
more focused on traditional tourism products. despite the wide variety of ecotourism opportunities in the country, government, ngos are still concentrating on traditional sun and beach mass tourism to gain more revenues. also all the recently developed tourism projects are focused on beach destination. alternative sustainable forms of tourism such as ecotourism are less prioritized. next, lack of communication and marketing strategies to promote different forms of ecotourism products. necessary infrastructure such as information centers, restrooms, resting areas, lodging and camping sites are lacking or poorly maintained in some destination
and also human development within the jungle has lack of sufficient interest in the environment and pollution caused by boats and other vehicles. to begin with malaysia, it has a large forest region that needs to be improved on the forest infrastructure. such as installing a drain system or flood control. secondly, they also need to monitor and address pre-solutions for possible natural disasters that are common in malaysia. such as landslide, heavy rain and tsunami. i would like to highlight that there are opportunities to improve the income from forests. specifically the revenue from production of non-wood products
such as honey, mushrooms, forest fruits and aromatic plants. moreover, personal training on new technologies for sustainable forest management. assessment could be a good project to focus on. before i end, i would also like to say that solid waste management needs to be better planned through a partnership of ecotourism branches with the local communities. so before that, let me start by defining what threat is. threat is an obstacle which is currently faced which could lower down the chance of success of a project. if the threats were not identified or realized or cleared, they would turn into weaknesses in the future.
the main aim of having threat element in swot analysis is to overcome or avoid such obstacles to prevent any inefficiency on any projects or undertakings. and there a some threats identified for the ecotourism development in malaysia. first of all, it is related to the land scarcity issues in malaysia. so malaysian private land owners may be greedy to interfere the developments of ecotourism such as agriculture, housing development and also tourism development. and next there is also the risk of destruction of unique features and environmental degradation in malaysia. because malaysian ecosystem is very fragile because of human activities and natural disasters. and moving on to the next threat which is related to the theft and extinction of flora and fauna in malaysia.
for example, there is a case which is reported that there are loss of species such as clouded leopard (harimau dahan) and turtle eggs in penang national park. and the fourth threat identified for ecotourism development in malaysia is that malaysia is surrounded by countries that offer the similar beauty of nature that is capable of being developed as ecotourism sites. for example, indonesia and philippines therefore, there are huge competitions from the neighboring countries. and the last, malaysia is also one of the biggest exporter of palm oil and rubber. and this heavy reliance on less sustainable industrial clusters
is a threat to malaysian ecosystem. hence, great strategy is highly needed in order to prevent the scarcity of resources. while malaysia is a popular destination for ecotourism as they have myriads of world class ecotourism destinations; yet it still has ample of room and opportunities to grow and to be a leader in the ecotourism industry. eco-tourism in a nutshell is the act of conserving the environment and surrounding community while participating in tourism activities. despite the country already having a well-established platform like infrastructures and backing of the locals for eco-tourism,
there are some areas that would need rectifying like how the country only focus on traditional tourism products and in some areas in the country, there are still a shortage of suitable infrastructures to support ecotourism. however, these are aspects that can be improved by taking necessary measures. by identifying the weaknesses, opportunities and the threats, the country has the potential to propel itself forward to be a leader in the ecotourism sector.