Tag - Environment

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Wetland Conservation Society (SWCS) has forged a partnership with an international upstream oil and gas company, Talisman Energy Inc, for its assistance in the society’s effort to conserve mangrove forests in the State. The Society yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Malaysian arm of the Canada-based company to jointly carry out a campaign to promote awareness on mangrove conservation among the younger generation. Under the MoA, SWCS will receive funding from Talisman Malaysia Limited (TML) for two projects, namely Paper Making and Clothes Dying. The projects will engage young pupils and students from schools across the State in a fun, out-of-the-classroom activities where they will create and use products made from mangrove trees. SWCS president, Zaini Aucasa, said after the signing that the programmes were aimed to expose and educate the younger generation about the importance of the wetland ecosystem and the increasingly urgent need to conserve them. “Talisman will provide the funding and our role under the MoA is to ensure that the projects are fully implemented as planned to meet their objectives. “We want the students to be actively involved, not just be a passive recipient in learning about the mangrove ecosystem. We want them to see the importance of the mangrove environmentally, and how we can conserve while at the same time utilize the wetland sustainably for economic benefits, and we want them to do this through participation in a hands-on project,” added Zaini. The signing was held in conjunction with the launch of Talisman-sponsored “Handicrafting From Mangrove Project”, a programme involving over 250 secondary school students in and around Kota Kinabalu organized by SWCS. The launch was held at the Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre in Teluk Likas as part of SWCS World Earth Day celebration, and was officiated by Director of Sabah Wildlife Department, Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu, representing the permanent secretary to the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Michael Emban. Senior Vice-President and Country Manager, Ron Aston, represented TML at the launch and the MoA signing. In his speech at the launch, Aston revealed that apart from SWCS, TML has collaborated with the Malaysia Nature Society in the last two years, to monitor changes in marine and coastal ecosystems in Terengganu and Sabah. He said Talisman had contributed more than RM330,000 for the project, which involved villagers from Kampung Meruntum in Putatan, local district councils, various government agencies as well as experts from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). As a demonstration of its commitment towards getting young Sabahans into the oil and gas industry, he said, Talisman will also be offering several scholarships to local undergraduates at UMS starting this year. “In addition we are also looking at possibilities of sponsoring trainee technicians from Sabah to pursue certified courses so that they can be considered as operation technicians at our offshore facilities,” he added. Talisman has been operating mainly in Peninsular Malaysia for over 12 years and recently expanded its wings to Sabah after acquiring two offshore blocks from PETRONAS in 2009. In December last year, it successfully took over operatorship and began production operation at the Kinabalu Oil Field, which saw the consequent setting up of its area office in Kota Kinabalu. Source: Borneo Post  

KOTA KINABALU: A special River Keeper Unit has been established in Sabah's Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS), an initiative aimed at protecting Borneo pygmy elephants and other wildlife. "Honorary wildlife wardens" from local communities will be tasked with checking for illegal activities such as encroachment on reserves, illegal logging and hunting along the river. Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the unit will complement efforts of his department as their resources were insufficient to cover the whole state. He said the River Keeper Unit would assist in monitoring wildlife as well as threats to wildlife along the river and within the LKWS. The unit is headed by community members Mohd Syafendy Yajit and Sudirman Sawang, who are well suited for the job as both have years of experience working with the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme under HUTAN, a French NGO involved in conservation activities. HUTAN's scientific director Dr Marc Ancrenaz said that the local wardens also had a lot of field experience with elephants. "The unit will conduct day and night patrols to monitor and prevent illegal activities such as encroachment in riparian reserves, illegal logging and hunting along the 260 kms of river within the LKWS, from Lokan to Abai villages," Dr Acrenaz added. The River Keeper Unit was established jointly by the Wildlife department, HUTAN and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) and is being funded by Elephant Family and the Kinabatangan-Corridor of Life Tourism Operators Association (KiTA). The River Keeper Unit will be based at the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Kinabatangan and will also monitor tourism activities along the Kinabatangan river, stopping any boats getting too close to the elephants. DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said although tourism can boost economic development, ill-managed activities could also be a nuisance to elephants and their habitat. "With this in mind, one of the major roles of the River Keeper Unit will be to investigate elephant responses to tourism activities along the Kinabatangan and to come up with wildlife-watching guidelines that will be provided to the different tour operators in the Kinabatangan with the goal of minimizing tourism disturbance for wildlife," he said. Source : The Star

Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Department of Wildlife has decided to 'appoint' 35-year old female Sumatran rhino Gelugob as 'ambassador' of the species to highlight their plight, said Dr Sen, Senior Veterinarian of Sabah Wildlife Department. Dr Zainal Zahari, the Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bora) Chief Vet at Tabin , said the ambassador role in an emergency situation is most appropriate for Gelugob, since it has completely run out of its reproductive usefulness as it is not producing eggs any more. A gathering of the most competent experts at the Sumatran Rhino Crisis Summit in Singapore early April this year warned that the species had arrived at the gate of hell, noting that the animal is rapidly running out of space numbers in their range countries. Dr San said total world rhino population is estimated at less than 50 with a low 10 coming from Sabah, the rest in Indonesia - an all time low which has alarmed rhino experts who argued that collaborative breeding programmes using proven success methods should not wait even one more day. One of their advice is to send Sabah's fertile male Tam to the US 'tomorrow' to mate with fertile nine-year-old Suci bred by Dr Terri Roth in 2004. However, Dr Zainal said heavy bureaucratic shackles at national borders bar even rhino urine from export, let alone genetic materials. "We are at crisis, we are desperate," Dr Terri Roth, the Vet at Cincinnati Zoo, famous for siring three baby rhinos through natural breeding in captivity, highlighted the dire situation facing the species but assured the meeting that science now has the answer to build up a safeguarding population to save the species. Being one of the only two remaining range countries, Dr Sen said his Department has decided to translocate Gelugob from Tabin to the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park as an ambassador to raise public awareness of not only it plight but also the scientific breakthroughs which Sabah will use to avert its extinction in the State. "Given that the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park attracted 158,936 visitors in 2012, Gelugob can do the species a heck of a big favour if we can awaken just 10pc of that volume of visitors that this charismatic animal has indeed arrived at the gate of hell and it need their active support for our coming breeding programmes and habitat conservation," Dr Sen said. "As such we are going to do a major improvement programme to its exhibit ground, we'll improve the substrates, put more sand to it, re-turf the entire hectare size grounds, remove some of the stones and also relocate the sambar deer which had grazed the grass to basically bare ground," Dr Sen said. "We will also improve the mud wallow to suit its health needs in addition to construction of an information booth," he told reporters. Visitors had emailed the Daily Express they were not seeing enough mud on Gelugob and the ground condition too barren and hot for an animal that depends on wallowing in mud most of the day to cool off, protect the skin from getting too thin and inflammation and from insect bites. However, if it rains a lot, the animal won't get much mud cover even in it's natural forest environment, Dr Zainal conceded. Dr Sen said it was Gelugob which created the existing wallow under some trees but keepers erected concrete edges around the wallow to bar debris and erosive materials from filling the wallow. Dr Rosa Sipangkui said her staff have to clean the wallow every day because Gelugob drops five kilos of poops in the wallow daily. Gelugob is already blind but it is able to find its way to the wallow and back to the paddock by the scent of its own urine, she said. "That's the only place she would poop and if we don't clean it daily, she won't go in," Dr Rosa revealed the daily grind in caring for a Sumatran rhino. Source : Daily Express

Kota Kinabalu: About 25 schools have contributed to the Sabah Environmental Action Centre (EAC) collection of RM267,090.86 (June 2010 to March 2013), said Mayor Abidin Madingkir. This collection, according to Madingkir, involves 266 other bodies/organisations which participated in their campaign aiming to reduce plastic usage through the 20 sen payment for each plastic bag given away. On complaints received from consumers who were dissatisfied with the charges, he encouraged them to bring their own bags especially bio-degradable bags. "Apart from being able to save money, it also helps save the environment by reducing the amount of plastic used reduces the amount of rubbish thrown away which are made out of plastic," added Madingkir who officiated at the 3R programme - Zero Waste for a Greener Environment at SK Stella Maris, here. Also highlighted by him was the effort to reduce the usage of polystyrene containers and plastic bags due to its negative health implications. On top of that, he said any pollution involving these items would lead to long-term hazardous effects to the environment. The Zero Waste for Greener Environment is an initiative by City Hall, EAC Sabah, EAC Kota Kinabalu and Shell Malaysia. Shell Malaysia is the main sponsor for this programme. "Thank you to SK Stella Maris for their strong support. This is their third participation in our campaign which aims to reduce the usage of plastic bags. The first recognition given to them was on June 7, 2010. I'm sure that with another recognition as one of the schools without rubbish, it would motivate staff and students to engage more in our efforts." "According to City Hall's records, there are 74 areas without rubbish in Kota Kinabalu and out of this number, 31 of them are schools. Among activities carried out by us include activating the recycle centre with Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation where 13 'Collection Points' for recycled items have been set up in KK." Meanwhile, also acknowledged by him was SMK Pulau Gaya's active efforts towards becoming a school without rubbish. Source: Daily Express

KOTA KINABALU: Astro has successfully set a new Guinesss World Records title for the longest underwater clean up where 134 Astro Kasih volunteer divers completed over 168 consecutive hours of underwater clean up, at 14 dive sites surrounding the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park here from April 6-13. Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, representing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, with Astro chairman Tun Zaki Tun Azmi, yesterday witnessed the Guinesss World Records certification presentation for the longest underwater clean up by Kirsty Bennett, Guinesss World Records Adjudicator to Dato Rohana Rozhan, the Chief Executive Officer of Astro. The event was also attended by many local and international divers who volunteered for this attempt. During the attempt, Astro Kasih volunteer divers from Malaysia as well as France, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, USA, Lithuania, Switzerland, Hong Kong and the Netherlands conducted a total of 1,120 dives at 224 dive locations surrounding Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. The Astro Kasih volunteer divers collected over three tons of marine debris, including plastic bottles and bags, fishing lines, nets, cans and tires. Musa congratulated Astro for taking the lead in another exemplary initiative under its CSR arm, Astro Kasih. “Astro has taken on an active role in creating greater awareness in marine conservation for a beautiful Malaysia. I encourage more companies in Malaysia to play a bigger role in conservation, as it is only through our collective efforts, that we will be able to pass on a beautiful country for our future generation,” he said in his speech delivered by Masidi. Masidi said: “As we all know, Sabah is famous for its unique, rich and natural habitat. Hence, it is important we all work together, hand-in-hand to promote ecotourism among Malaysians and the international community, to build a clean, sustainable and healthy environment that is free from any pollution”. One of the divers, Captain Kumaran Balakrishnan said in his 30 years of diving experience, this was by far his most fulfilling experience, especially diving midnight during a storm in choppy waters. “As a diving instructor who spent most of the time in the ocean, I am glad that I am able to do my part for the environment. Thumbs up Astro for a job well done,” he said. Astro employee Izamuddin bin Abdul Rahman said he was really proud to take part in this Astro Kasih CSR initiative. “It was truly a memorable and fulfilling experience for me to complete all my dives and be part of this wonderful attempt. I also enjoyed meeting other local and foreign divers and sharing our experiences”. In conjunction with the event, Astro Radio is the first to broadcast underwater live, and recently hitz.fm together with its announcers from Sabah, shared their experiences and updated their listeners on their dive attempt. Source: Borneo Post