More than 150 river systems in the country are used for inland navigation, transportation, irrigation, water supply and hydropower. The wetlands, primarily the mangrove forests, are important for firewood and charcoal, as habitats for aquatic life and food and for prawn, and for protection from erosion. More than half the nation's annual fishery income is related to the mangroves, and the livelihoods of 300,000 fishermen depend on them. Wetlands are considered wastelands by developers. Clearance and conversion to agriculture or aquaculture, industrialization, urbanization, and pollution all menace the mangrove forests.
Flooding is a nuisance unless it is prolonged.
Areas can easily be protected from inundation. Wetland loss, while small in terms of area, would have serious economic repercussions, and reclamation could cause the mangrove firests of Peninsular Malaysia to disappear by the year 2000.