Copyright © 2018 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (4.38) (2018) 1017-1021 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper The Influence of Interpretation, Commitment and Nature Conservation Knowledge on Pro-Conservation Behavior Among Malaysian Students Muhamad Suhaimi Taat*, Elver Fazley Charlie, Fiffy Hanisdah Saikim *Faculty of Psychology and Education Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Abstract Human behavior has caused negative impact on our environment. The exploration, exploitation and destruction of our planet occurred merely to satisfy the desires of human being. Thus, to sustain a better future particularly in terms of healthy lifestyles and maintain envi- ronmental sustainability, the human behavior towards conservation must be changed. Therefore, this quantitative research involved sec- ondary students in order to identify and explore the level and influence of students’ interpretation, commitment, knowledge a nd pro- conservation behavior. The respondent consists of 500 students from selected urban secondary schools in Sabah, Malaysia. Questionnaire adapted from previous researches was the instrument used to collect the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that there was significance influence of student’s knowledge and commitment on pro-conservation behav- ior. The research findings revealed that the students’ interpretation, commitment, nature conservation knowledge and their behavior were important and needed more attention from various parties in order to develop their lifelong attitude towards environment and biodiversity conservation. Hence, the environmental organizations need to design and organize a lot of conservation programmes in schools in order to promote conservation and build positive impact on the students’ behavior towards environment and biodiversity conservation. Keywords: Conservation, Interpretation, Commitment, Nature conservation knowledge, Pro-conservation behavior 1. Introduction Malaysia is one of the developing countries and like other devel- oping countries Malaysia also faced with environmental problems. In Malaysia, a research conducted by Aini et al. (2003) stated that the environmental conditions become worst every single day due to the result of human activities and behavior towards the envi- ronment and the result of industrial production and consumption pattern. It all happens because of the needs to satisfy the human being lifestyles. Past researches and studies show that people are generally very concerned about the environment. However, in order to maintain environmental sustainability, it is their commit- ment, perception and their behavior and lifelong attitude towards conservation of the environment that are important markers for a long term social change rather than being concerned and not doing anything to save and protect the environment. There are a lot of educational programmes about conservation organized in Malaysian schools. In Sabah, one of the programmes is known as Program Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar (SERASI). It is a programme aimed at creating environmental awareness among students through efforts related on environmental management, environmental activities, cleanliness and beautification of the school ground, environmental innovation and clean toilets. This program promotes conservation among students, builds positive impact on the students’ behavior towards conservation and most importantly encourages students to be innovative about their ways to conserve and preserve the environment. Besides SERASI, there are other environmental programmes that are very useful at creat- ing environmental awareness among students. It is important for the students to protect and conserve the environment because it will help to protect the environment from being damaged and destroyed and at the same time maintain the environmental sus- tainability. Environment has influenced and shaped our lives since the time immemorial. Through the environment we get all the necessities of today’s life. From the environment, we get our food to eat, water to drink and air to breath. Through the steps of natural se- lection and elimination it is environment only which has caused the evolution of biological spectrum, the biosphere as it exists today. But nowadays, environment has become the concern of all; the academicians, intellectuals, scientists, policymakers and gov- ernment across the continents (Kant and Sharma, 2013). We are facing with one of the most horrible ecological crisis, such as the climate change. Climate change is one of the environmental crises that we faced nowadays and it brings the most dramatic threat to the earth’s environment. The increased of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gas byproducts harm our environment and affecting the balance of our ecosystem. Greenhouse effect and a slowly warming planet is the result of global warming. Accord- ing to The World Health Organization (2002), global warming is responsible for 154,000 deaths worldwide by creating conditions more favorable for the spread of diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and diarrhea. Man’s ignorance, greed and lack of respect for the environment has caused trouble to the environment and biodi- versity; and thus threatening us with environmental crises such as climate change, global warming, water pollution, and land pollu- tion.