VII. ISSUES AND PROBLEMS: SOME POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

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F. Improved technology and technology transfer

An important element of basic environmental management is the need to foster technological improvements and efficiency gains, even when the costs of research and development are not borne by the private sector. In the polluting sectors, that is, transport and industry, "clean" technologies will be made most widely available by fostering foreign investment in such sectors. Since many high-efficiency industrial and transport technologies pay for themselves over a few years, government intervention is mainly required to assist the SMIs in adapting to environmentally friendly technologies. However, in the green sectors (i.e., agriculture, forestry and natural resources) public sector involvement in technical issues is a high priority, especially for devising sustainable production technologies.

Some renewable natural resources have identifiable economic value, but most of the biological and physical systems that sustain them lie outside the economic system. Thus economists assign a value to a stand of timber or to the annual fish catch or even to a quantity of water, but not to the ecosystems or hydrological systems that produce and renew those resources. Other renewable natural resources such as sunlight, air and the diversity of plants and animals are traditionally taken for granted as "free goods of nature" which, together with a corresponding lack of price signals, may contribute to a lack of awareness of impending shortages. Yet it is the world's renewable resources, and the resource base from which they stem, that are most in danger of being severely degraded and depleted in some regions. Unfortunately, most leaders today seem to be preoccupied with the issue of economic growth because it has a direct impact on the credibility of their political promises. As such, the urgency of economic growth usually overrides any concern about its environmental implications. For example, while there is a general consensus among many policy makers that the polluter pays principle should be implemented, the private sector often resists such a move arguing that imposed higher costs will reduce its ability to compete. That dilemma is further aggravated by the fact that governments face competing demands for limited financial resources coupled with normally greater pressure for limited resources to be used for promoting economic growth.

Responsibility for environmental management is spread among several institutions, sometimes with overlapping authority. In such circumstances, efficient coordination of activities becomes imperative to ensuring the effective management of environmental concerns. Limited institutional capacity in terms of planning, monitoring and enforcement of environmental policies is another critical issue that needs to be addressed. It is not sufficient, at least at the current stage of economic development in Malaysia, to enact laws that safeguard environmental degradation. Given the trade-off between economic growth and sustainable development, many private sector institutions have yet to demonstrate their social responsibility such as curbing the pollution of rivers with toxic waste etc. In such circumstances, therefore, closer monitoring of industrial waste disposal is required. One major problem that needs to be addressed is limited institutional capacity. Many agencies that have environmental functions face shortages of staff, critical skills and even equipment for monitoring, as well as a limited capacity to enforce environmental regulations and establish clear priorities. That is especially the case in Malaysia, where such functions fall within the preview of federal, State and local government.

Setting priorities requires an understanding of the extent and consequences of environmental degradation. Yet limited data is available on the amount of water pollution in the rivers and lakes, and the air pollution in the urban centres of Malaysia. Information on the use of forest and land resources is often outdated, and not much appears to be known about the condition of critical ecosystems such as watersheds.

As it stands, Malaysia has environmental rules and regulations, but they appear to be fragmented, with issues being addressed exclusively from a sectoral perspective, and with existing policy and legislation remaining focused on just a few areas. Several laws assign specific responsibility to a series of sectoral agencies that lack a comprehensive perspective of the environment and common guiding principles. Lack of coordination, ambiguity and duplication of effort, with separate agencies providing individual services with little coordination in their activities, are some of the weaknesses of the environmental management structure as it exists. Political and social complexity has resulted in weak governance at the local level, becoming an impediment to a well-structured development programme.

Growing evidence that widespread local participation is critical to the success of any environmental/development project, on the other hand, has reinforced decentralization of environmental management. Such a trend may offer important benefits, but it poses difficult challenges for environmental managers. Managers at the State or local level are given greater responsibility, for example, but without additional resources needed to cope with that responsibility.

Concentrating all environmental policy-making and implementation within one agency or ministry with scarce resources is likely to render the institution powerless in the face of the formidable challenges that it will inevitably confront. Thus it would be more feasible to set up a coordinating body to strengthen public sector capabilities, carry out needed policy research, frame legislation and create the system under which the environmental impact of proposed projects can be assessed.

The philosophy behind the coordinating body concept is that the environment is not a sector per se but a phenomenon that permeates all human activities. Therefore environmental issues should be approached comprehensively at the highest level. Such a coordinating body could be located in City Hall of Kuala Lumpur. That would ensure the involvement of all who influence environmental quality issues, particularly the private sector, NGOs and community groups, while also enabling the establishment of a process for strategic planning that balances and prioritizes environmental management activities across sectors and builds them into capital planning and budgeting processes. In addition, such an approach would establish capacity for financial management, revenue generation and programme implementation at the local level, as well as build local capacity to monitor environmental rends and apply the data to environmental management. That strategy would also facilitate environmental planning which, to a large extent, is currently hampered by the lack of environmental information that is either not collected or is often held in different agencies and is not easily accessible for planning purposes.

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