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Rapid urbanization will cause various land use changes and the vast occupation of green spaces, a critical factor in the deterioration of biodiversity in urbanized areas. Some species of wildlife are endangered due to habitat shrunk and fragmentation. However, Malaysia's current biodiversity protection range is still limited. The Ecological Network (EN) refers to a framework of ecological components, which can be obtained by geographical and technical approaches to support more ecological diversity ranges. Furthermore, little research has been found on EN in Malaysia and the impact of land use change on EN. Therefore, the Selangor region is selected as the study area. This paper quantifies land use change and measures the extent of land use change to obtain the EN's change. The result has shown that forestland has decreased, explored by people for housing and agriculture from 2000 to 2020. The EN has a trend of fragmentation. Overall, this study's results imply that the land use change led to EN's worsened performance from 2000 to 2020 in the study area. This paper hopes that this research could help supply information on conserving biodiversity in future development and urban sustainable planning in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the knowledge levels, attitudes and behaviours regarding the concept of sustainable development among pre-university programme educators, as well as the potential barriers and opportunities they face in adopting the concept of sustainable development in the teaching of the pre-university level chemistry module at a public university in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with eight educators of a pre-university programme at a public university located in Selangor, Malaysia. This pre-university programme exposes students to advanced courses in science, which are very much like first-year university courses for candidates who are interested in gaining admission to degree programmes. For this study, the focus was on chemistry educators only. The collected data were analysed through descriptive analysis following which interviews were conducted with the respondents. Findings: In general, the educators have good knowledge and attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development. Moreover, their projected knowledge (K), attitude (A) and behaviour (B) focus more on environmental dimensions, as opposed to other sustainable development dimensions. While the integration of the concept of sustainable development in chemistry teaching is restricted by a few barriers, such as content-based learning, lack of guidebooks related to sustainable development and an overcrowded curriculum, positive responses from the chemistry educators indicate that there are opportunities to implement sustainable chemistry concepts in the pre-university chemistry module. Research limitations/implications: The present study was conducted with several limitations; the data were obtained from a small sample size at an institute located within a public university. The respondents of this research consisted of only three existing chemistry educators and five administrators who are also educators. Further studies about sustainable chemistry teaching should include samples from other public and private universities. Originality/value: This paper is instrumental in assisting the Ministry of Education, administrators, as well as educators within the pre-university sector to shift their goals towards sustainable chemistry teaching to achieve success in education for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of foundation chemistry learners concerning the sustainable development concept.Design/methodology/approach Qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted. Atlas.ti software was used to analyse the chemistry curriculum based on selected themes and sub-themes. A survey was carried out involving 132 chemistry learners. The chemistry learners were students from a foundation programme in a local university located in Selangor, Malaysia. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 involving descriptive and inferential statistics.Findings Document analysis on the chemistry curriculum shows that water is the theme most covered in the chemistry learners' textbook, as compared to other themes. In general, the chemistry learners have good knowledge and attitude concerning the sustainable development concept. However, their knowledge and attitude do not reflect in their behaviour as an individual, as well as in the classroom. Moreover, their knowledge, attitude and behaviour focus more on environmental dimension, as compared to other sustainable development dimensions.Practical implications This paper is instrumental in assisting educators to assess how chemistry learners perceive sustainable development, and this may help to bring about changes to improve chemistry teaching and learning processes towards education for sustainable development.Originality/value This paper is an original and novel research paper which is first conducted on sustainable development concept in chemistry curriculum in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In Malaysia, research indicates that there is an interest amongst the stakeholders, namely, administrators and academicians to be engaged in education for sustainable development (SD), but it is rarely implemented as a part of the higher education curriculum due to various barriers. This paper aims to develop a framework for integrating SD concepts into the chemistry curriculum, using a case study approach. Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted at a local university located in Selangor, Malaysia, offering a foundation programme to students between 17 to 18 years of age. Data was collected using a qualitative approach that involved 12 experts as informants. The collected data was analysed via three coding stages, namely, open coding, category coding and thematic encoding using Atlas.ti 7.0 software. Findings: The research revealed that six aspects contribute to the integration of SD concepts into the chemistry curriculum, namely, educational policy, awareness, resources, curriculum, pedagogical approach and stakeholders' engagement. The proposed framework was formulated by considering these aspects. Originality/value: The findings of this study can be used as a guide to facilitate the integration of SD concepts into the chemistry curriculum. It is expected to encourage the involvement of more teachers in adopting sustainable chemistry teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangroves continue to be extensively replaced for alternative land uses despite global recognition of their value for ecosystem services. Limited effort has been directed into understanding how changes in mangrove ecosystems affect human well-being, especially in Asia. Using the inhabited Klang Islands, Selangor, Malaysia as a case study, this paper explores the relationships between mangrove ecosystem services and human well-being by adapting and modifying three existing conceptual frameworks. Semi-structured interviews with island residents were conducted to explore mangroves' contribution to human well-being. Analysis revealed that respondents recognised examples of regulating, cultural, and provisioning ecosystem services resulted from their interaction with mangroves. While all three ecosystem services contributed to both basic human needs and subjective well-being, provisioning and cultural services were reported to also contribute to economic needs and regulating services, more strongly to environmental needs. These findings contribute to more inclusive decision-making processes concerning development and conservation planning in the fast-urbanised Klang which would affect the overall well-being of the communities in general, largely the Malay, Chinese and Mah Meri communities, and the fishers specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception that better information on environment and development is the determinant of effective rational decision- and policy-making processes provide the impetus for global interest in the use of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). Accordingly, proposals for SDIs are framed either on organisational goals or on disciplinary and multidisciplinary theories—aiming to reduce uncertainties in choosing the best alternative among a set of options concerning sustainability. Despite the fact that many SDI initiatives are explicitly aimed at improving policy-making, it is not apparent that political settings and organisational realities are taken into consideration in designing the framework for sustainability assessment. Ignoring the realities of policy-making dynamics can result in poor institutionalisation of the SDI development process, and therefore reduced impact of indicators. Linkage of SDIs to policy processes must also take into account the complex role of information in policy processes. The importance of societal values, cultural contexts and behaviour of bureaucracies must be understood and used to assist the assessment of progress towards sustainability using SDIs. Essentially, objective knowledge must be tampered with pragmatism in governance. This paper highlights the case of SDI development in the state of Selangor where the notion of instrumental rationality is balanced with the ‘incrementalism’ of the policy process that provided the foundation for institutionalising the reporting and use of SDIs. The ideals and paradoxes of participatory decision-making, the principles of the rational model and decision-making processes within a state government are critically examined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Different stakeholders managed recreational forests in Selangor, Malaysia. These stakeholders' involvements have risen a question whether their development have fulfilled the sustainable landscape requirement. The aim of this study was to understand and generate more comprehensive knowledge on the recreational forest landscape management towards forest sustainability. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the management of recreational forest in Selangor, Malaysia that affect landscape sustainability and to gain an overview of recreational forest landscape development in Peninsular Malaysia. The study applies three methods. First is the analysis of documents relating to sustainable landscape concept. Secondly, through case studies where three recreational forest sites in Selangor were selected to analyze their management practices towards landscape sustainability. Thirdly, field observations were carried out to collect data about existing physical conditions of the study sites. The results revealed that landscape management of these recreational forests were not in accordance with landscape sustainability approaches and needs improvement. This was caused by improper planning, low understanding among the staffs regarding sustainable landscape management, shortage of knowledgeable personnel, and poor supervision. Failure to adopt and implement sustainable landscape practices which include environment protection, social improvements, good governance, aesthetics enhancement, economy benefits, and harmonized designs can lead to the increase in the "abandon syndrome" of some recreational forest sites in Peninsular Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]