Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said the government had made the decision in principle while considering improvements to the order for an EIA.

She was replying to Wong Shu Qi (DAP-Kluang), who asked whether the government would approve development on the Ramsar site of Sungai Pulai in Johor, as was done by the previous Barisan Nasional government.

A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated as being of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. Otherwise known as the Convention on Wetlands, the Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by Unesco that came into force in 1975.

Yeo said Malaysia has seven Ramsar sites, namely Tasik Bera (Pahang); Tanjung Piai, Pulau Kukup, Sungai Pulai (Johor); the Kuching Wetlands National Park (Sarawak), and Segama Wetlands and Kota Kinabalu Wetlands (Sabah).

She said EIAs are required for 38 development activities, along with approval from the Department of Environment before the start of a project. These include the construction of transmission lines, tunnels, bridges and manmade lakes, and coastal reclamation in environmentally sensitive areas.

“In this regard, development activities in environmentally sensitive areas are controlled not only through enforcement and monitoring, but also the approach of preventive planning and via the EIA process,” she said to Wong on the ministry’s efforts to ensure the preservation of environmentally sensitive areas.

Yeo said project developers must take effective pollution prevention and control measures set in the conditions for EIA approval to eliminate any threat to the ecosystem during the implementation of a project.

“In the event that damage or pollution occurs during the development of the project, the developer will be liable to action under Section 34A of the Environment Quality Act and will have to bear all the costs for the rehabilitation of the area,” she said.