Fuel subsidy harmful to the fisheries sector: WWF
Published on: Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Incentives such as the fuel subsidy programme for the fisheries sector would not bring long-term economic transformation to coastal fishing communities.WWF-Malaysia's Head of Conservation for Sabah, Bernard Tai, said the incentives would instead contribute to excess fishing capacity and over-fishing.Under the State Sales Tax Enactment 1998, green taxes should be introduced based on the polluter pays principle and user pays principle and the revenue generated should be used mainly for conservation purposes.
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"All this should be looked at in totality in the context of national and state's tax systems. Introduction or hiking of green taxes should be balanced by reduction in personal income tax rate and corporate tax rate as well as import duties to avoid adding extra financial burden to consumers and businesses."We should also intensify our effort in promoting green certification and eco-labelling for our tourism, agricultural, forestry and fishery products. Such schemes help to improve market access and export competitiveness yet at the same time ensuring sustainable utilisation of Sabah's natural resources," he added.Tai said this during the WWF-Malaysia Seminar: Challenges and Opportunities for Biodiversity Conservation in Sabah on Thursday.Held at Shangri-la's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa (Star), the seminar set out to share the experiences and acknowledge of WWF-Malaysia on environmental conservation issues in Sabah, as well as to develop a consensus on the necessary inventions to ensure a thriving biodiversity in the State.
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The speakers at the seminar were made up of WWF-Malaysia's teach of in-house experts, each with extensive experience in the field of biodiversity conservation.Executive Director of Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) and Advisory Council Member for WWF-Malaysia Datuk Dr Junaidi Payne delivered the keynote address with an overview of forty years of conservation in Sabah and its gains and losses.
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He highlighted the biggest gains for conservation in the past decade namely significant net positive improvement in permanent forest estate, external funding for forest restoration, and fractious NGOs becoming more interactive and united. In his view, an absence of focus on specific endangered species by competent and independent biologists willing and able to convince NGOs and governments on what should be done is likely to be the ultimate cause of the extinction of those species.Dr Yoganand Kandasamy of WWF-Malaysia, spoke on "Terrestrial Biodiversity Conservation in Sabah: opportunities and challenges", highlighting the Sabah government policy of keeping 30 per cent of Sabah's land as protected natural forests as a great opportunity to protect what is left of the best areas for endangered species, diversity of forest types, and still intact forests.He also highlighted the huge challenge of managing conflict between elephants and humans in the context of ensuring long-term elephant survival in landscapes containing a mix of forests and oil palm and other tree plantations.WWF-Malaysia's Head of Marine, Robecca Jumin, enlightened the seminar on "Current issues and opportunities in Marine conservation in Sabah".She explained habitat protection and the organisation's commitment in achieving the Aichi Target of 10 per cent marine and coastal area protected and managed, long presence of threats towards marine conservation, and its solutions; creating a platform to stress that awareness raising alone is simply not enough."The gazettement of the proposed Tun Mustapha Park (TMP) will significantly contribute towards habitat protection. WWF-Malaysia continues to hope that TMP will be gazetted by 2015 to realise its objectives for habitat and species protection and sustainable development," she concluded.Policy analyst of WWF-Malaysia, Sheelasheena Damian, enlightened the seminar concerning federal and state conservation legislations - Bringing clarity to complexity.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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