Malaysia and Selangor Mangrove Policy Mapping and Analysis

Including:

• The key actors that play an important role in mangrove policy creation and delivery are also mapped.
• To reflect Malaysia’s federal system of government, the state of Selangor in Peninsula Malaysia is used as a case study to show how mangrove policies and actors span these decision-making levels.
• The report identifies policy gaps and makes recommendations on how the policy landscape can be modified to support the sustainable management of mangroves within state and federal levels in Malaysia.

Method

• Relevant policy instruments and policy actors are identified through application of a Rapid Policy Network Mapping (RPNM) approach.
• This approach enables visualisation of the mangrove policy landscape through the creation of policy instrument and policy actor maps.
• The policy instrument map plots instruments by policy domain (international, regional, national, or local (state) scales), and policy category (cross-sectoral, forestry, fisheries, tourism, other environmental and non-environmental).
• The policy actor map plots actors by policy domain and policy role (Influencer, Owner/Decision-Maker, Influencer/Deliverer, Deliverer.
• A database of instruments and actors was also generated to record characteristics of both elements, which can become a resource for future policy assessments.

Results

• Forty-one policy instruments and forty-six policy actors are identified from this approach as influencing mangrove management to the state level.
• The highest policy instrument activity occurs at the national level and within a crosssectoral context (i.e. biodiversity). Only five instruments are identified at the state level.
• No fisheries/aquaculture instruments are featured through this process.
• The highest number of policy actors operate at national level and are fairly equally distributed across the roles of Influencer, Owner/Decision-maker, and Influencer/Deliverer