Urban Green Space and Urban Biodiversity: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Urban green space plays an important role in enhancing the quality of environment especially for urban biodiversity. Declining biodiversity around the world has received much attention among academics, professionals and citizens. The United Nations has declared year 2010 as the 'International Year of Biodiversity'. Urban biodiversity movement is important to ensure healthy city environments. Despite this ongoing movement, urban dwellers have little knowledge about conservation of biodiversity particularly wildlife. Moreover, biodiversity has received little attention from built environment practices (Brown & Grant, 2005;Niemelä, 1999).In general, urban wildlife habitat is protected as reserved forest. Many species of wildlife are generally found in such reserved forests. In comparison, the scale of urban parks in Kuala Lumpur is massive, much larger than protected forests. This paper presents the situation of urban wildlife species and the quality of habitats in Kuala Lumpur. It is found that many factors contribute to the healthy conservation of urban wildlife such as quality and variety of habitats, ornamental versus native vegetation and ecological design. The findings highlight that common urban birds are dominant in urban green spaces regardless of the size of the green spaces. However, only larger urban green spaces help protect species. Finally, the study concludes that urban wildlife in Kuala Lumpur is rapidly declining and that there is a greater need for the community and stakeholders to promote programs and activities to preserve and enhance urban wildlife. Development of comprehensive acts, policies and guidelines are vital for urban wildlife protection.

Nature experience promotes preference for and willingness to coexist with wild animals among urban and suburban residents in Malaysia

“…However, few studies have documented public perceptions of and preferences for wild animals in Southeast Asia (however, cf. Nik Mohamad 2011;Baharuddin et al 2013;Jenks et al 2014;Karuppannan et al 2014).…”

Diversity and Species Composition of Odonates (Insecta: Odonata) of Hutan Lipur Soga Perdana, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia: A Green Lung

“…The protection of the species that live within urban wildlife habitats or green lung is depending on the size of urban green spaces [29]. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the area of green spaces remains 'untouchable' in order to ensure the conservation efforts of green lung as they play important roles in ecological functions and thus increase the quality of life for urban populations.…”

“…It is recommended that further samplings be made for odonates at Hutan Lipur Soga Perdana covering longer period of time. There are few research that study on the impact of urbanization towards biodiversity [29,36,39,41] which focused on avifauna as bioindicator of the green spaces. Insects, another groups of important biological indicator of green spaces including odonates should be highlighted and this research is part of an effort towards conservation of biodiversity of the green lung.…”

Biodiversity and the built environment: Implications for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

“…The man-made systems of the environment, such as the buildings and infrastructure (transportation, telecommunications, energy, water and waste systems) affect biodiversity (Nolan et al, 2009). Increasing urbanisation has exposed plant species and animals due to the loss habitat (Karuppannan et al, 2014). Environmental issues should be considered at the front-end of the project cycle to minimise the negative impact of construction activities on the environment.…”