Muhammad Mehedi Masud’s research while affiliated with University of Malaya and other places

Green human resource management is considered a critical tool in achieving sustainable behavior in an organization. This study aims to examine the influence of GHRM on employees' green behaviors via the mediating roles of corporate social responsibility and green psychological climate. This study utilized Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling to test the proposed model using a sample of 384 human resource managers and employees selected randomly from the industrial companies in all provinces of Iran. Our findings revealed that green human resource management practices influence companies' social responsibility, green psychological climate, and employees' green behaviors. In addition, corporate social responsibility and a green psychological climate promote green behaviors amongst the employees. Therefore, green human resource management influences employees’ green behavior directly and indirectly via the mediating roles of corporate social responsibility and green psychological climate within Iranian industries. The study outcomes confirm the significance of incorporating sustainability measures into the human resource management system as well as the important role of human resource management on environmental sustainability for the attainment of long-term sustainability in industrial development. The findings of our study are especially relevant to industrial companies in all countries, as it encourages them to engage in more sustainable practices such as lowering resource consumption.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) in Malaysia are greatly constrained by a host of problems and challenges such as ineffective management, poor institutional capacity, limited enforcement, absence of awareness, and poor socioeconomic status (SES) which influence the conservation of marine resources. Environmental degradation is another issue, including anthropogenic activities, overexploitation of marine resources, water quality deterioration, massive waste generation, and climate changes. These are the main impediments to sustainable economic growth, social development, and conservation of natural resources. This chapter details the major hurdles to sustainable community development within MPAs in Malaysia. It would help policymakers resolve the problems associated with marine park management and take appropriate steps to preserve, conserve, and protect marine resources for sustainable community development.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are management tools to conserve, preserve, and protect marine biodiversity, cultural heritage, and sustainable production of fisheries. Simultaneously, MPAs have the potential to ensure competent management of marine ecosystems. To stimulate the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, global policymakers have introduced the 14th sustainable development goal (SDG-14). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) focuses on increasing the current size of global MPAs. They have set targets to increase the size of global MPAs to 10% by 2020 and at least 30% by 2030 to accomplish SDG-14. This chapter discusses an overview of SDG-14, CBD initiatives, the Coral Triangle Initiative by six Coral Triangle countries, and challenges to achieve SDG-14 by 2030.

It is essential for marine protected areas (MPAs) to employ an effective management system and utilise natural and marine resources in a sustainable way. The effective management of MPAs should integrate government initiatives and the involvement of local communities. MPAs currently face numerous challenges due to ineffective management of resources. The common practices of a centralisation approach and lack of community-based approaches are the key drivers of ineffective management of MPAs. In particular, these issues are not addressed comprehensively in Southeast Asia. Many countries are moving from centralised approaches to decentralised approaches, which reflect the growth of community-based management approaches as a preferred alternative. However, a fundamental question naturally arises: do marine park communities (MPCs) adequately manage natural and marine resources? The local community might encounter significant problems such as insufficient financial budget, lack of technical know-how, lack of capacity, skills, or training, lack of law enforcement, and absence of coordination or cooperation. As a result, this chapter discusses collaborative management systems, which could be a way forward for government officials and local communities to utilise and manage coastal resources in a sustainable manner.

Environmental degradation is a major obstacle to economic development, especially for coastal communities. Environmental degradation has an incremental adverse impact on the lives and livelihoods of marine park communities (MPCs), the development process of human societies, and the preservation of natural resources. Despite the obvious connection between ecological preservation and economic development, little effort has been devoted to ensure sustainable utilisation of coastal and marine resources. Marine protected areas (MPAs) suffer from poor socioeconomic conditions and environmental degradation; MPCs are most severely affected since they depend on marine and coastal resources. These are the main impediments to sustainable coastal community development. This chapter proposes an integrated management policy framework for the effective and sustainable management of MPAs, from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives. This policy framework will help policymakers to preserve, conserve, and protect marine resources as well as uplift the socioeconomic status of MPCs.

Global biodiversity losses and environmental degradation are accelerated by rapid population growth, unsustainable economic development, rapid urbanisation, and climatic conditions. There is a dynamic and composite relationship between livelihoods and conservation; thus, conservation and poverty reduction are integral parts of the conservation philosophy and practices in most developing nations. However, maintaining an effective balance between environmental conservation and community development has proved difficult. The effects of conservation on coastal communities, in social terms, have been recognised in four main dimensions of poverty including wealth, health, political empowerment, and education. Few studies, however, have researched the effects of economic, social, political, cultural, technological, and ecological development on the sustainable use of natural resources in coastal areas. The alleviation of rural poverty has been a long-standing concern of governments, and economic development has frequently been viewed as the instrument for ending poverty. This chapter therefore examines the primary dimensions of sustainable development for marine park communities (MPCs).

Marine protected areas (MPAs) make a significant contribution to the protection of marine communities through the provision of sustainable livelihoods, financial benefits related to fisheries and tourism, as well as the restoration of ocean productivity and the prevention of further degradation. Due to the inefficient management of MPAs, however, the marine ecosystem has been greatly affected by the substantial reduction in fish biomass, resulting in loss of biodiversity and extinction of species in MPAs. Malaysia, one of the top 12 megadiverse countries in the world, places great importance on the conservation and sustainable use of its rich natural heritage. In Malaysia, the concept of MPAs was introduced in the 1980s to raise public awareness on declining fisheries resources and ecosystem degradation. These MPAs have been established to address the threats to marine, coastal, and island ecosystems. The development of MPAs around the world, and particularly in Malaysia, is an essential geo-ecological element, not only for biodiversity, but also for society and the economy. There are four categories of MPAs in Malaysia: marine parks, no-take zones, wildlife sanctuaries, and turtle sanctuaries. For a better understanding of MPAs in Malaysia, it is relevant to provide a global overview before focusing on the Malaysian context.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established to protect, preserve, and shelter vulnerable and endangered marine life. These areas contribute substantially to reducing the degradation of coastal habitats and sea life, maintaining biodiversity, preventing the loss of marine species, increasing productivity, supporting ecological systems, and protecting the oceans. In particular, these areas serve as a safeguard of fish stocks. Conservation efforts have significant positive economic, sociocultural, and environmental impact on livelihoods, food security, income generation, as well as poverty reduction for coastal communities. MPAs form the cornerstone of a blue economy which contribute to sustainable development in coastal communities as well as for the national economy as a whole. It is therefore important to improve the understanding of MPAs’ importance among all stakeholders and local communities; only then can we conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources. In this regard, local communities play a key role to promote sustainable use of marine resources and our natural heritage. Thus, this chapter discusses the economic, social, and ecological importance of global MPAs.

This book addresses a timely and compelling emerging issue related to the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources and the sustainable development of the coastal community. Marine protected areas (MPAs) make a remarkable contribution to the protection of marine communities by providing sustainable livelihoods, deriving financial benefits from the development of fisheries and tourism, as well as by restoring ocean productivity and preventing further environmental degradation. These areas have been considered the cornerstone of a blue economy due to their substantial economic, social and environmental contributions. However, MPAs around the world are severely hampered by a multitude of issues and challenges such as inefficient management, poor socioeconomic conditions and environmental degradation due to human activities, overexploitation of marine resources, degradation of water quality, massive waste production and climate change. These are the main obstacles to economic, social and environmental sustainability. Hence, a collaborative management approach and an integrated management policy framework is urgently needed for the economic, social, political, cultural, technological, and ecological development of coastal communities. Muhammad Mehedi Masud is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He has published more than 40 scientific papers in internationally refereed Journals. His research interests are development economics, environment and sustainable development, environmental impact assessment, ecotourism development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, community development, livelihoods, poverty and social mobility. He has received several awards such as Academic Excellence Award -2014, Excellence Award-2015 and BSN Award- 2016 from University of Malaya.