It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the relationship between corruption and environmental degradation. The fact is, the act of corruption ruins everything and our environment is no exception.
For those who are forgetful or ignorant, both corruption and environmental damaging behaviour are religiously wrong and have major destructive impact on both humans and non-humans.
The World Bank defines corruption as the “abuse of public power for private gain.” In terms of environmental degradation, the overall result of corruption is the diversion of resources from the public good to private consumption. The end result of such immoral activities are, the impacts that were intended to be for wider benefit, such as the society as a whole, are now confined to a limited number of greedy people.
Not only corruption is damaging to the environment, it also distorts national development priorities, leading to a massive human and financial capital flight, and clearly undermine our social and political stability. The worst circumstances of such a corrupted act are the impact to the most vulnerable segment of society, for example, the indigenous peoples.
Sadly, these problems impair not only the well being of present generation but also our next generation. Thus, environmental corruption disrupts environmental sustainability and human’s sustainable living. The problem persistently exists without any traces of it being reduced or eliminated.
The United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODP) in its “act against corruption” campaign stated that “a number of sectors are particularly vulnerable to corruption, including forestry, the protection of endangered species, water supply, oil exploitation, fisheries and hazardous waste management.” Such problems occur at various levels of administration, “from embezzlement during the implementation of environmental programmes, to grand corruption when permits and licenses for natural resources exploitation are issued, to the bribery of officials.” Additionally, weaknesses in enforcement also has contributed to an increase of the problem.
In Malaysia, environmental corruption is not new and has existed for many years. This symbolises the existence of weaknesses in governmental institutions, poor governance, bad management, monitoring and enforcement. The results of such limitations are the degradation of environmental quality and resources.
The link between environmental corruption and environmental degradation in Malaysia can be seen in illegal logging and poaching activities, for example, tiger poaching. The tiger has been the identity and symbol of strength of our nation. It can be found only in Peninsular Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Currently, the Malayan Tiger is in danger of extinction from a variety of activities particularly from poaching. Tiger poaching has resulted in the decreasing number of the Malayan Tiger. Recent estimates suggest that only 250 to 340 tigers are left. This is such a small number and thus, the Malayan Tiger is considered as a “critically endangered” species. Various efforts have been made to overcome this problem, for example catching the poachers, but the problem still persists. With every hunter arrested, there are definitely dozens more out there.
Other than poaching, the loss of habitat also poses an intense threat to tigers. Habitat loss occurs in several ways such as illegal logging, clearing of forests for agricultural activities, the construction of dams and so on. According to WWF Malaysia, “the development of linear infrastructure—which includes roads, gas pipelines, railways, power and transmission lines and canals—is on the rise in Asia and often fragments wildlife habitats, which could be the biggest threat to low-density species such as tigers. As a result, tigers are unable to breed, hunt, find cover, and establish their own territories.”
For some people, it is not easy for them to link corruption to poaching and illegal logging. However, this does not deny the fact that environmental corruption occur. It should be noted that, contrary to mainstream opinion, corruption does not necessarily involve money. Other facets of corruption also involve kickbacks, embezzlement, fraud, conflict of interest, abuse of discretion, extortion and favouritism or nepotism.
To resolve the problem, environmental corruption should be addressed not only through legal action but all Malaysians need to play their role in combating the problem. These can be done through education and a close cooperation between all levels of society and the anti-corruption agencies.
Such cooperation can be seen through the setting-up of the Environmental Protection and Anti-Corruption Caucus (EPACC) by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commissions (MACC) to fight against environmental degradation caused by corruption and abuse of power. EPACC is made up of representatives of MACC; Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia (PEKA); Rimba Research; Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM); Persatuan Aktivis Sahabat Alam (KUASA); the Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM) and the Centre for Science and Environment, Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (IKIM).
The above initiatives should be strongly supported and we hope more people will come forward to assist EPACC and provide relevant information to eliminate environmental corruption.