Biodiversity: our life, our heritage, our future

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is Malaysia’s Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC) Minister, Keadilan vice president and Member of Parliament for Setiawangsa. Malaysia ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1994 and was the 65th country to do so.

MALAYSIA’s flora and fauna, whether on land or at sea, show the richness of the country’s natural resources that contribute to a ‘living ecosystem’ of which we are a part of. Indeed, our biodiversity is not just a part of us, but we depend on it far more than we actually realise.

Malaysia, exhibiting great biodiversity, is one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries because of the high biodiversity within its borders. The combined total of biodiversity in the megadiverse countries makes up almost 70 percent of all known species in the world. In this respect, Malaysia has always been committed to conserving and managing its biodiversity in a sustainable manner. At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Malaysia boldly declared that the nation is committed to maintaining a minimum of 50% of its terrestrial area under forest tree cover. To date, Malaysia's forest cover stands at 54.6%, or 18.04 million hectares, of its total land area, exceeding the country's initial commitment made earlier.