836
M. Muslim et al.
1 Introduction
Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM) is a department under the Ministry
of Natural Resources and Environment of Malaysia which is responsible for maintaining and managing forests in peninsular Malaysia. Under the JPSM there are many
units that have been set up for more systematic management as well as management
under the state for each state in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, JPSM also has its
own forest assessment system such as ITTO Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable
Forest Management, MC and I 2001 and MC and I (Natural Forest). In this paper,
SAM is used to assess the sustainability content of the activities of the Forestry
Department of Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM) through 6 years of annual reports. The
annual reports are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The reason why authors
did not test 2016 and later reports because of the authors want to see how results
get along with the Millenium Development Goals which ended in 2015 and replaced
by Sustainable Development Goals which came to effective in 2016. This study is
intended to gauge their overall confinement and commitment to the global sustainability thinking and priorities followed the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)
agenda and WEHAB Framework that focus on Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture
and Biodiversity. Authors do not have any other intention to replace or to dispute the
current Criteria and Indicators for their Sustainable Forest Management.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Sustainability/Sustainable Development Assessment
in Forest Management
According to Ness et al. (2007) “The sustainability assessment is used to give
decision-makers with an evaluation of global to local integrated nature–society systems in short and long term perspectives to assist them in actions of should or should
not be taken in an attempt to make society sustainable”. All sustainability assessment
require all users of these assessments to have the knowledge and understanding of
sustainability principles and concepts (Suzyrman et al. 2014).
Stork et al. (1997) mentioned that criteria and indicators (C&I) need to be applied
at the forest management unit level and those for biodiversity are just one part of a
package that includes socio-economic and other categories. Biodiversity is an extraordinarily broad concept for huge diversity of life in tropical forests. It is impossible
to make rapid direct assessments of biodiversity in forests and also it is likely that
there will be limited skilled of human resources and time for biodiversity assessment, so it is important that designing tools that do not require expert application
and interpretation (Stork et al. 1997).
Holvoet and Muys (2004) stated that the number of initiatives aimed at the evaluation of Sustainable Forest Management has risen greatly since the UNCED Confer-
M. Muslim et al.
1 Introduction
Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM) is a department under the Ministry
of Natural Resources and Environment of Malaysia which is responsible for maintaining and managing forests in peninsular Malaysia. Under the JPSM there are many
units that have been set up for more systematic management as well as management
under the state for each state in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, JPSM also has its
own forest assessment system such as ITTO Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable
Forest Management, MC and I 2001 and MC and I (Natural Forest). In this paper,
SAM is used to assess the sustainability content of the activities of the Forestry
Department of Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM) through 6 years of annual reports. The
annual reports are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The reason why authors
did not test 2016 and later reports because of the authors want to see how results
get along with the Millenium Development Goals which ended in 2015 and replaced
by Sustainable Development Goals which came to effective in 2016. This study is
intended to gauge their overall confinement and commitment to the global sustainability thinking and priorities followed the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)
agenda and WEHAB Framework that focus on Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture
and Biodiversity. Authors do not have any other intention to replace or to dispute the
current Criteria and Indicators for their Sustainable Forest Management.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Sustainability/Sustainable Development Assessment
in Forest Management
According to Ness et al. (2007) “The sustainability assessment is used to give
decision-makers with an evaluation of global to local integrated nature–society systems in short and long term perspectives to assist them in actions of should or should
not be taken in an attempt to make society sustainable”. All sustainability assessment
require all users of these assessments to have the knowledge and understanding of
sustainability principles and concepts (Suzyrman et al. 2014).
Stork et al. (1997) mentioned that criteria and indicators (C&I) need to be applied
at the forest management unit level and those for biodiversity are just one part of a
package that includes socio-economic and other categories. Biodiversity is an extraordinarily broad concept for huge diversity of life in tropical forests. It is impossible
to make rapid direct assessments of biodiversity in forests and also it is likely that
there will be limited skilled of human resources and time for biodiversity assessment, so it is important that designing tools that do not require expert application
and interpretation (Stork et al. 1997).
Holvoet and Muys (2004) stated that the number of initiatives aimed at the evaluation of Sustainable Forest Management has risen greatly since the UNCED Confer-