Tree Preservation Order of Act 172: A Malaysian Legislation Towards Sustainable Urban Forests

Abstract

An urban forest has to be sustained for it to continuously benefit the urban dwellers and the environment. The essence of urban forest sustainability is to have good urban tree management, and one means to achieve this state of affairs is through a legislation called Tree Preservation Order (TPO). The Malaysian TPO legislation comes under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 or Act 172, hence known as TPO (Act 172) and it is meant to be implemented by the local planning authorities (LPAs) in the states of Peninsular Malaysia. TPO (Act 172) was introduced as a reaction to a disaster in which a high-rise building collapsed and believed to be the result of widespread lack of caring for the environment in development projects. This chapter thoroughly discusses on the TPO (Act 172) provisions, the tree felling prohibition provisions and the procedures for an LPA to make a TPO. It also spells out the current status of TPO (Act 172) implementation which is considered very unsatisfactory and needs reviewing. Finally, the way forward for ensuring effective TPO (Act 172) implementation is mentioned.