A review on the needs to improve Malaysian tree preservation order (TPO) (Act 172)

Abstract

Trees are important to human and the environment, and should always be protected to continuously benefit us. The Malaysian government, recognising that the rapid development of the country has put trees at risks of being damaged and killed, thus introduced Tree Preservation Order (Act 172) in 1996. However, recently, there have been cases whereby trees that were meant to be preserved were felled down without consent of the local authorities. This situation has raised questions on the effectiveness of the tree protection legislation. This paper gives information on the progress of the TPO (Act 172) gathered through literature review and proposes improvements of the legislation.