The coastal community awareness towards the climate change in Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose – The present paper attempts to investigate the awareness of coastal community towards climate change in Malaysia and to explore the factors associated with their awareness toward the climate change. Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative study where a set of questionnaires was developed based on reviews of literature and series of instrument development meeting. Through a multi-stage cluster sampling, a total of 210 respondents from three coastal villages in Peninsular Malaysia were selected. Findings – The coastal community are shown to record a high mean score on their awareness toward changes relating to the sea, temperatures and the coast. Surprisingly, fishermen are found to be less aware toward climate change compared to other groups, such as housewives/retirees and students. Further analysis confirms that there are significant differences regarding coastal community awareness to changes relating to the sea, temperatures and the coast. Research limitations/implications – This study represented the answers of 210 respondents who were randomly selected from three coastal villages in Peninsular Malaysia, and the results might be enriched if the number of respondents is increased and respondents from other villages are included. A future study should be conducted to gather information on the possible effects, rather than focusing on the respondents’ awareness. Additionally, because of the nature of the topic, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and officers from environment-related agencies should cooperate during the research. Practical implications – It is recommended that information management activities with regard to the climate change should be actively conducted by NGOs, universities and related parties. Originality/value – Most of the related studies are scientific in nature, leading to a gap relating to the social aspects of climate change, particularly in terms of communities’ awareness toward the climate change. Moreover, a number of local studies have produced inconsistencies in term of their results regarding the awareness of the climate change among the community. In response to this, the current study aims to fill this gap.