INTRODUCING MALAYSIA'S ENVIRONMENT
Malaysia covers an area of approximately 330 000 square kilometres that almost straddles the equator. The Peninsula accounts for 40 per cent of the total land area with the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak representing, respectively, areas of 23 and 37 per cent of the country. By the late 1990s, the land supported an estimated population of nearly 21 million and experienced an average annual growth rate of 2.3 per cent. The three largest ethnic groups that make up the population are the Bumiputera (the indigenous people, including Malays), Chinese and Indians. They came to Malaysia in progressive waves of migration, in the first instance to find a better life away from economic privation in their home countries.
The Bumiputera still live to a large extent off the land, and although more Malaysians are moving from rural settlements to towns and cities, where work in the industrial and service sectors is to be found, nearly half of the country's population still maintains a rural existence. The indigenous groups in Sabah and Sarawak, and to a lesser extent in the Peninsula, include those who follow near-nomadic existences and hunt and gather all they need directly from their forest environments. The diverse cultural mix of peoples have adapted to, and likewise transformed, the equally diverse physical landscape of the country. The mountainous terrain of Sabah and Sarawak has meant these states have remained sparsely populated compared to the Peninsula, where vast areas of lowland and richly fertile coastal plains attracted settlers.
To make way for paddy fields and wide expanses of rubber, and later oil palm, once forested land has been felled. At the start of the 20th century, four-fifths of Malaysia was covered by tropical rainforest. Aggressive development, shifting cultivation, mining and commercial logging over the century have significantly reduced the total forested area, so that by the mid-1990s it was one half of its original cover. However, if tree crops such as rubber and oil palm are taken into consideration, then the total area of the country covered by trees remains an impressive 75 per cent of the total land area.
In the post-Independence era (after 1957) and especially during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, not only the pristine forests were felled to give way to development, other aspects of the environment also manifested signs of distress. With increased industrialization and urban growth, new forms of 'modern' pollution were introduced affecting the quality of the country's air and water and which in turn affected Malaysia's land and people.