Leisure and Recreation

Assoc Prof Dr Kamarul Bahrain ShuibLecturer

Centre of Studies in Park and Amenity MgmtUiTM, Shah Alam

Resources and Society’s Needs

A talk to Diploma and Bachelor of Outdoor, Leisure and Adventure Management, MSU, Shah Alam

26/12/2013

ABOUT

• Introduction• Definitions

• Level of Resources• History of Parks

• Protection of Parks in Malaysia• Park and Society’s Needs

• Conclusion

This presentation discusses on park, recreation and leisure as they relate to resources and society’s need. It has the

following sections:

INTRODUCTION

Why Park and Recreation?

Phillips, L.E. (1996: vii)

“Successful parks and playgrounds require good design, proper

management, and supportive people.”

A park is a bounded area of land or sea, usually in its natural or semi-natural (landscaped) condition and set aside for some reason, usually to do with recreation.

What is a park?

DEFINITIONS

Definition of Recreation:

Hurd and Anderson, 2011: 10

“an activity that people participate during their free time, that people

enjoy, and that people recognize as having socially redeeming

values”

What is recreation?

Recreation is an activity voluntarily undertaken, primarily for pleasure and satisfaction, during leisure time. Art, craft, physical fitness, cultural activities, outdoor recreation and passive recreation are categories of recreation activities.

Also defined as participation, in any pursuit - other than those associated with work and necessary tasks of a personal and a social nature.

Undertaken freely for the purposes of relaxation or entertainment or for their own personal or social development.

What is leisure?

Portion of time that remains, when time for work and basic requirements for existence have been satisfied.

Also defined as a state of mind and lifestyle that is free of work or time.

What is Sport?

Is a structured, result focused, competitive recreation activity involving physical activity.

Includes both training and competition and may be undertaken either individually or as a team.

Broken down into different levels, such as professional/entertainment, elite and community.

Local Government:• Neighborhood • City • Metropolitan State Government:• Regional • State Federal Government:• National• International

LEVEL OF PARK RESOURCES

Neighborhood

• Integrate location, distribution and components with housing layout and design.

• Must be centrally located within 0.4km from house.

• Nature/man-made site.• Active and passive recreation must be provided in relation to demands of recreational needs of population catchment.

Neighborhood parks

City/Urban

To enhance neighborhood park in providing recreational facilities that cannot be provided in neighborhood park.– Location in service and community centers.

– Accessible by walking, cycle and public transport

Examples,• Putrajaya parks and gardens • Shah Alam Park• Taiping Lake Gardens• Penang Botanical Garden• Titiwangsa Lake Garden

City parks

Taiping Lake Garden Penang Botanical Garden

Metropolitan

• Centrally located or at fringes of city with good accessibility.

• Moderate intensity of use.• Site must be outstanding with nature and water body surrounded by green.

• Recreational facilities must be balanced with basic and supplementary amenities.

• Location must be within half hour of distance from population catchment.

Metropolitan park

Kepong Metropolitan Park

Regional

• Park resources must have outstanding beauty, nature and sustainable values.

• Integration with all elements that constitute the park must be met without damaged to the environment.

Regional park

Minnekhada Regional park, Canada

Kenyir Lake, Terengganu

State

• Established for state’s natural and cultural resources protection.

• Have various names but objective of establishment reflect state populations need and policies.

• Nature, culture, historical, heritage values are usually the purpose of park creation.

State park

Royal Belum State Park, Perak

Perlis State Park, Perlis

National/Federal

• Large tract of land set aside for public recreation and enjoyment.

• Set up under national park act or state park laws.

• Different names used for designation.

• In Malaysia, Penang National Park is the first that was set up under the National Parks Act 1980.

National park

Penang National Park, Penang

Tanjung Piai National Park, Johor

Bukit Kiara Federal Park

International/Trans boundary

• Goes beyond boundaries of nations

• Treaty and conventions • European countries have these types of park

• Americas• Asia/ ASEAN• Middle East• African countries

International park

Alabama International ParkGlacier International Peace Park, Alberta, Canada

According to Wilkinson (2003), the concept of open space is usually considered in an urban context.

Open space has been part of urban recreation and leisure resources since ancient times in Mesopotamia, the Greek city states, and Imperial Rome.

In the twentieth-century, open space was an important element in ‘new towns’ in Britain and the United States.

PARK AND RECREATION HISTORY

In the USA, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) was responsible for the idea of park and recreation.

American landscape designer and father of American landscape architecture.

I love park and recreati

on

USA

UK• The history of urban parks in Britain during 1830s to 1885s was a response to the problems of urban industrialisation and rapid population growth.

• Park development started in the major industrial centre of the northwest of England and Glasgow, Scotland. The first municipal park created in a new industrial centre was Moor Park, Preston in 1833.

• During the 1950s and 1960s, the provision of park and open spaces was an important part of the planning and design of new towns, which was influenced by the Garden City Movement.

• The historical beginning shows that they were built for the pleasure of the royal families.

• The palaces are the most important and dominant landscape elements of traditional settlements, being the largest residential unit and centre.

• The earliest gardens of the tropics were those planted in the compounds of religious complexes and around the palaces of local royalty and were not made public.

Malaysia

Istana Iskandariah KK

Chronological development of

intentionally-built parksForbidden

gardens1500s

Melaka and

Kelantan sultanate

s

Colonial occupatio

n1880s

English style of

green spaces

New Towns and

Satellite communitie

s

Post-British

occupation

1960s

Mahathir’s Administratio

n1980s

Enhancing the quality of life

Urban landscape program1990s

‘Landscaping the nation’

Towards Garden Nation2005

Garden City Concept

Future style?

Park, garden and heritage landscape?

• Landscape resources today represents tropical rainforests, wildlife species, and shaped by natural and cultural forces since its origin.

• Park resources that identified and protected are legacies of the colonial past.

• What has been considered significant and needed protection were largely areas with high natural and wildlife values as the colonials were fascinated by the tropical paradise and the environment that they find value in keeping.

RESOURCE PROTECTION IN MALAYSIA

• Volunteer wildlife officers or the police undertook enforcement of the law in 1896 and thereafter.

• The first wildlife reserve, the Chior Wildlife Reserve in Perak, was established in 1903, covering only 4,330 hectares.

• It was only in 1927 that the first salaried wildlife officers were employed by the Perak Government and later followed by the state governments of Pahang and Negeri Sembilan.

• By 2004 over 800 park resources of various kinds were established; again exclusively on nature and wildlife reserves, covering 8,328,587 hectares or 25.26 percent of the total land area.

• Amenity forest reserve 12

• Bird sanctuary 12

• Commercial forest reserve 29

• Communal forest 29

• Conservation area 2

• Domestic forest reserve 10

• Forest reserve 386

• Hunting reserve 1

• Mangrove forest reserve 17

• Marine park 49

• Marine reserve 1

• National historic monument 1

• National park 34

• Nature monument 2

• Nature park 1

• Nature reserve 4

• Other area 8

• Park 6

• Protected area 1

• Protected forest 76

• Protection forest reserve 43

• Turtle sanctuary 3

• Virgin jungle reserve 114

• Wildlife reserve 31

• Wildlife sanctuary 15Total 887

(Source: UNEP-WCMC, 2004)

Resources and National designation

A park is aimed at fulfilling the following objectives:Providing people with access to fresh air and nature for their recreation.

A place where they can meet and enjoy each other’s company.

Parks should promote pride in the community.

SOCIETY’S NEEDS

Fresh air… enjoy…community pride

River Torrens Linear Park, Adelaide

Hahndorf Farm tourism, Adelaide

Framework for recreation planning

1. Public parks, leisure services and open spaces are vital aspects of urban form and

functions.

2. Leisure services and spaces that are well designed, properly located, and adequately maintained, and that serve the needs of

intended users, can improve the quality of urban life and environment.

3. The planning and design process can provide a rational basis for community action to improve the quantity and quality of leisure opportunities in

cities.

4. Social research techniques can be used to measure leisure behavior in terms of preference or satisfaction for different types of activities or environments.

5. These values can be translated into dimensions of time, space and activity

for different population groups.

6. These factors can be related to the demand for and the supply of existing or

potential leisure opportunities to indicate need in terms of area or

services for a specific activity or set of activities.

7. This need can be translated into measures of effectiveness of performance standards which reflect the values of

people.

8. These measures can play an important role in the planning and decision process for the provision of leisure opportunities

in cities.

9. The provision of leisure opportunities in cities can be a joint effort of the

public and private sectors.

10. This effort is worthwhile in human terms and can be justified by its social, economic, political, and environmental

benefits.

Leisure and Recreation has increasingly becoming a yardstick to measure the performance of countries.

It has been said that the final test of civilisation of a society is measured by their acceptance of leisure and recreation as a way of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Thank You