BIOBANKING SCHEME FOR FOREST CONSERVATION IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: A BRIEF APPRAISAL

Tropical rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia is home to a highly diverse flora and fauna. The biodiversity and sustainability of the forest are highly potential to mitigate climate change and its adverse consequences. Although Malaysia is committed to preserve the forest in recognition of the important services, the threat against the forest of degradation and even deforestation for demand of other prevailing interests remain. Bio banking scheme has been one of market-oriented mechanisms which have been suggested to fund towards ensuring the sustainability of the biodiversity in Malaysia. By examining the experience of biobank for forest or environmental conservation, this paper considers issues and challenges in the creation of such biobank in Peninsular Malaysia as proposed in a study. For this, it considers two existing schemes of biobanking, one is implemented in the New South Wales, Australia, and the other is in Sabah, Malaysia, the Malua Biobank. The main features of these two schemes are examined and the issues faced are considered in the context of the Peninsular Malaysia. Creation of such biobank is significant to promote for further efforts in finding alternatives in forest conservation.