Sains Malaysiana 51(12)(2022): 3909-3922

http://doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2022-5112-04

Assessment of Governance and Ecological Status of Terengganu Marine Park, Malaysia: Toward Marine Spatial Planning

(Penilaian Pengurusan dan Status Ekologi Taman Laut Terengganu, Malaysia: Ke Arah Pembangunan Reruang Laut)

CHE DIN MOHD SAFUAN¹, NAZLI AZIZ^1,5,*, IZARENAH MD REPIN², XIONG-ZHI XUE³, ABDUL RAHMAN MUHAMMAD ASHRAF⁴, ZAINUDIN BACHOK¹, NIK NURHAZIRAH NIK OMAR⁴, NOR HAFZAN ABD RASID¹ & WAN IZATUL ASMA WAN TALAAT¹

¹Institute of Oceanography and Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Darul Iman, Malaysia

²Bahagian Taman Laut dan Pengurusan Sumber Cawangan Konservasi Ekosistem dan Biodiversiti, Jabatan Perikanan Malaysia, 62628 Putrajaya, Federal Territory, Malaysia

³Fujian Institute for Sustainable Ocean, Xiamen University, Xiamen City, 361005 Fujian Province, China

⁴Lembaga Sumber Air Terengganu, Tingkat 2, Wisma Negeri, Jalan Pejabat 20200, Kuala Terengganu Darul Iman, Malaysia

⁵Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Darul Iman, Malaysia

Received: 5 April 2022/Accepted: 6 September 2022

Abstract

Terengganu Marine Parks (TMP) is a 591.37 km² marine protected area. TMP are popular tourist destinations that significantly generate revenue to the government and local businesses through tourism sector. However, the anthropogenic activities have contributed to TMP’s declining ecosystem health, particularly the coral reefs. Therefore, a sustainable ecosystem-based management is required to maintain the ecosystem. In this study, we identify issues related to the marine park’s governance, development on islands, tourist activities and coral health status in the TMP for assessing potential management strategy for conserving the ecosystem. The findings on management in TMP found that there is an overlapping in managing the marine park between the federal and state government. Unintegrated development to accommodate rising number of tourist and their activities in the marine parks are identified as the factors contributing towards degradation of the ecosystems. Relatively, reef areas close to these local pressures are in ‘poor’ condition, indicating that threats arising from the activities affecting the marine ecosystem. Hence, this study analyses the potentials in adopting Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) in the TMP for managing the conflict between user and the ecosystem. The Australian Great Barrier Reef Marine Park which applied the zoning of marine area is used as a benchmark to examine the best practices of MSP to govern the TMP. At present, we suggest using coral reef health status as an early alternative and best practice to provide different zoning criteria for strategic marine protected area (MPA) management for TMP.

Keywords: Coral reefs; environmental management; marine protected area; ocean governance; South China Sea

AbstraK

Taman Laut Terengganu (TMP) ialah kawasan perlindungan marin seluas 591.37 km². TMP merupakan destinasi pelancongan popular yang menjana pendapatan ketara kepada kerajaan dan peniaga tempatan menerusi sektor pelancongan. Walau bagaimanapun, aktiviti antropogen di TMP ini dilihat sebagai faktor yang menyumbang kepada kemerosotan kesihatan ekosistem marin, terutamanya terumbu karang. Oleh itu, pengurusan yang mampan perlu dikenal pasti bagi menjaga kelestarian ekosistem marin ini. Dalam kajian ini, kami mengenal pasti isu berkaitan tadbir urus taman laut, pembangunan di pulau, jumlah pelancong serta kesihatan terumbu karang di sekitar kawasan TMP bagi menilai pengurusan yang berpotensi untuk menjaga kelestarian ekosistem marin ini. Hasil kajian pengurusan tadbir urus di TMP mendapati terdapat pertindihan pengurusan antara kerajaan persekutuan dengan kerajaan negeri. Pembangunan tidak bersepadu untuk menampung peningkatan jumlah pelancong dan aktiviti pelancongan di taman laut dilihat sebagai faktor yang menyumbang kepada kemerosotan kesihatan ekosistem. Secara relatifnya, kawasan terumbu karang berdekatan dengan kawasan pembangunan ini berada pada tahap kesihatan yang ‘tidak baik’, menunjukkan ancaman daripada aktiviti setempat yang mempengaruhi ekosistem marin ini. Justeru, kajian ini mencadangkan pelan pengurusan berdasarkan kepada Perancangan Spatial Marin (MSP) untuk TMP bagi menguruskan konflik antara pengguna dan ekosistem ini. Pengurusan MSP oleh Taman Laut Australia Great Barrier Reef yang menggunakan kaedah pengezonan kawasan marin dijadikan sebagai penanda aras untuk kaedah MSP bagi mentadbir taman laut ini. Pada masa ini, kami mencadangkan pengezonan kawasan taman laut berdasarkan status kesihatan terumbu karang boleh menjadi alternatif kepada pengurusan kawasan perlindungan marin (MPA) yang strategik untuk TMP.

Kata kunci: Kawasan perlindungan marin; Laut China Selatan; pengurusan persekitaran; tadbir urus lautan; terumbu karang

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^*Corresponding author; email: nazli_aziz@umt.edu.my