Malaysia’s forests are more than a natural inheritance. They underpin water security, climate resilience, biodiversity, and the long-term stability of key economic sectors. From vast rainforest complexes to vital wildlife corridors, these landscapes support ecological systems that communities, businesses, and the nation rely on.

Yet these forests are under growing pressure. Habitat fragmentation, land conversion, and environmental degradation continue to erode ecosystem integrity, with consequences that extend well beyond conservation. Globally, WWF’s Living Planet Report 2024 shows that wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970, driven largely by the loss and degradation of healthy ecosystems.

Responding to this challenge requires sustained leadership, long-term commitment, and collaboration across sectors, including private sector, whose supply chains, operations, and investments are closely tied to natural capital.

Anchored in this understanding, the Living Landscape initiative is WWF Malaysia’s long-term commitment towards strengthening the protection, conservation, restoration and effective management of the largest contiguous Malayan tiger landscapes from main range Belum-Temengor Forest Complex to Greater Taman Negara. Procter & Gamble (P&G) is supporting this multi-year landscape conservation effort across four states and five districts aiming increase forest connectivity, improve sustainable practices of palm oil and rubber smallholders, and stabilise the Malayan Tiger population- an important indicator of ecosystem health,.

Implemented across four states and five districts, the initiative covers more than 120,000 hectares of interconnected forests and production landscapes. Working at this scale allows conservation efforts to address ecological connectivity, land-use pressures, and livelihoods together, rather than treating them as separate challenges. The approach is guided by the Protect, Restore, and Produce framework, which integrates conservation outcomes with sustainable land use and economic considerations.

The Protect pillar strengthens wildlife protection through anti-poaching efforts, including Spatial Monitoring And Reporting Tools (SMART) patrolling, field monitoring, and the safeguarding of ecosystem services that sustain both people and nature. A central objective is stabilising the Malayan tiger population, an important indicator of forest health. As a national symbol, the Malayan tiger represents strength and courage and plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy forest ecosystem. Its protection also safeguards entire ecosystems that support biodiversity, water catchments, and climate regulation.

The Restore pillar addresses forest fragmentation by rehabilitating degraded areas and repairing riparian zones that function as critical wildlife corridors. By reconnecting landscapes such as Belum–Temengor and Taman Negara, restoration efforts improve ecological resilience, enable wildlife movement, and strengthen forests’ capacity to withstand environmental and climate-related pressures.

Across the Protect and Restore pillars, community participation is integral to implementation. Orang Asli (OA) community members are engaged as rangers supporting anti-poaching and restoration activities, contributing local knowledge while creating employment opportunities. In parallel, buy-back programmes linked to OA-managed community nurseries support restoration efforts by supplying native seedlings, reinforcing both forest recovery and community-based livelihoods.

The Produce pillar works with the palm oil and rubber sectors, particularly smallholders, to enhance sustainable practices through training, certification readiness, and responsible land management. Smallholders play a vital role in Malaysia’s rural economy. Supporting them to adopt better production practices helps reduce pressure on forests while improving income stability and long-term livelihoods.

Spanning ecologically significant landscapes, the Living Landscapes initiative brings together local communities, researchers, corporate partners, non-governmental organisations, higher learning institutions, and government agencies. This collaborative model reflects a shared understanding that forest conservation at scale cannot be achieved by any single actor alone.

For government stakeholders, these efforts align with national biodiversity targets, climate resilience priorities, and broader landscape-level planning. For the public, protecting forests and wildlife reflects national pride and a shared responsibility to safeguard Malaysia’s natural capital. For corporate partners, supporting landscape-level conservation increasingly speaks to environmental leadership, risk management, and business resilience.

A defining strength of the initiative is the role of corporate leadership in enabling long-term impact. Through its partnership with WWF-Malaysia, P&G supports solutions that go beyond short-term interventions, contributing to ecosystem protection, forest restoration, and community empowerment at scale. This reflects a growing recognition that healthy forests are not only essential for nature, but also for economic stability and supply-chain resilience.
The Living Landscapes initiative demonstrates how engagement across government, communities, and the private sector can drive meaningful, long-term solutions that help secure the country’s forests and natural capital in an increasingly uncertain world.

- ENDS -

About WWF-Malaysia

Established in 1972, WWF-Malaysia is part of WWF, the international conservation organisation. Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and wildlife, WWF-Malaysia’s efforts to conserve nature focus on six major goals - forests, oceans, wildlife, food, climate and energy, as well as freshwater – and three key drivers of environmental problems – markets, finance and governance. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Find our latest news here:
https://www.wwf.org.my/media_and_information/media_centre_and_updates/