THE FORMULATION OF SUSTAINABLE AND HIGHEST BEST-USE (SHBU) MODEL FOR FELDA LANDUSE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

FELDA land development focuses on settlements and agricultural areas, hence it is crucial for them to be managed efficiently. This study aims to establish a model that integrates sustainable land development with high income returns from the land. Therefore, this study identifies the elements essential for sustainable and highest best-use (SHBU). Several research approaches have been conducted namely Focus Group Discussion, documents analysis and questionnaire survey in order to search for key elements to be adapted into the SHBU model. From the analysis, five elements of the Sustainability and Highest-Best Use (SHBU) model, are discovered that they comprise of FELDA industries-based crops (FIbC) and SHBU, Strategic plan management (SPM), FELDA business centre (FBC), FELDA residential compound (FRC) and FELDA agro-preneur (FagP). These five-dimension SHBU model serves as a tool to assess the case study of FELDA settlement in order to come up with strategies to solve land development issues.