Only 4.3% of Malaysian waters gazetted as marine protected areas

Malaysia has so far only gazetted 4.3% of the country's waters as marine protected areas (MPAs), the Johor State Assembly was told today. State Agriculture, Agro-based Industry and Rural Development Committee chairman Datuk Samsolbari Jamali said Malaysia, as a member of the United Nations (UN) and Convention on Biological Diversity, needs to gazette at least 10% of its waters as MPAs. Referring to the gazetting of the Mersing archipelago, he said there were additional gazetting of waters in the archipelago -- seven islands and four rocks covering an area of 299 square kilometres.