Environmental action in Malaysia - the experience of citizen groups in environmental protection and conservation

Abstract

Traditionally in Malaysia, the concept of society itself developed as small kampungs, villages that grew usually sharing their natural envi- ronment, as riverine kampung settlements, or on agricultural land. Often, the community in the kampungs lived and worked together as a big family and depended on the water resources and food crops that fed them. The natural environment dominated, supported and nourished the traditional villages, and also sustained them with their livelihood and their basic needs. In such a traditional society founded on the collective functioning of its members, the community was all important.