Factors influencing awareness of local communities on conservation at Kuching Wetland National Park, Sarawak

Mangrove forest is known to be an important ecosystem especially in preventing erosion from the sea wave, as a wildlife habitat and also its economic value on timber. Currently, the mangrove forest area is being destroyed by industrialization, development, and also waste dumping even though most of the local communities are aware of the importance of mangrove forest. If these activities are continued, the degradation of mangrove forest will lead to unsustainable condition. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to determine the factors affecting local community awareness by measuring their level of perception in conserving the mangrove forest area. This study has been conducted in the vicinity of Kuching Wetland National Park area. Altogether, 365 respondents have been interviewed from seven villages which are located near the Kuching Wetland area. The convenient survey technique has been employed to select the respondents. The face-to-face interview technique is adopted to obtain information from the respondents using a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that four factors are found to be significant: socio-demographic characteristic (gender), participation in community programs, participation in conservation activities and knowledge on conservation. The study also reveals that there is a lack of conservation activities conducted in the vicinity of Kuching Wetland National Park area. Therefore, more activities like campaign, environmental education program and training should be carried out in order to increase the local community awareness towards conservation and management of mangrove forest.

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