07Sep

Mt Kinabalu steps into Lonely Planet’s book on world’s most epic hikes

PETALING JAYA: Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia's highest peak in the land below the wind, has been listed as one of the world's 50 most incredible hikes in Lonely Planet's new guidebook on hiking trails around the world. In the newly-published Epic Hikes of the World, around 200 Lonely Planet writers collaborated to uncover 50 incredible hiking routes in 30 countries. A sneak peek of the book by British-based website MailOnline revealed that Mount Kinabalu in Sabah was highlighted as one of the planet's most thrilling walking routes. Scaling Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, incorporates "tangled jungle, granite ridges and barren plateaux, traversing Borneo's highest and holiest mountain is a task that requires nerves – and legs – of steel", it said.
Other hiking trails in Asia that made the book includes the 88 Sacred Temples of Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan, the Markha Valley in India, and the Gubeikou to Jinshanling on the Great Wall of China. In Africa and the Middle East, Lonely Planet recommends Cape Town's Three Peaks in South Africa, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and the Camp to Camp in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park. Some of the best European hiking trails named were Wordsworth's Backyard: Dove Cottage and around Rydal and Grasmere in the UK, the Alpine Pass Route in Switzerland and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Closer to Asia, the Sydney's Seven Bridges Walk in Australia and the Routeburn Track in New Zealand were listed as the top hikes in Oceania. Towering at 4,095m tall or 13,435 feet above sea level, Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. It is Malaysia's first Unesco World Heritage Site and home to an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 plant species, 326 bird species, and over 100 mammal species. The summit to Low's Peak is popular amongst travellers worldwide, with many seasoned hikers making the trip to Sabah specifically to accomplish the arduous trek. Source: The Star Online
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05Sep

Nationwide beach clean-up Sept 22

KOTA KINABALU: Reef Check Malaysia, together with The Body Shop and Coca-Cola Malaysia, is organizing a nationwide beach clean-up on September 22 in conjunction with the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) Day. Several partners and friends from individuals to companies, have agreed to lead beach clean-ups in area of their choice. This effort is part of our long battle against marine debris, which is also our focus for the International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2018. This clean-up will be the second in a series of events that RCM has planned for the International Year of the Reef 2018. RCM conducted a beach clean-up in March, on a much smaller scale. This clean-up saw 500 people in 16 locations around Malaysia, and they collected over 2.6 tonnes of trash from 15km of coastline, including 15,974 plastic bottles, 6,884 plastic bags, 2,368 cigarette butts and 203 diapers. These clean-up efforts are intended to raise awareness and bring attention to the problem of marine debris, specifically plastic waste, which represents a serious threat to marine ecosystems. Plastics are also making their way into the food chain and will harm us in the future. However, it has to be about more than just doing continuing clean-ups. RCM sees the need to go beyond clean-ups and to eventually stop having to do away with them altogether. RCM says they are working at getting to the source of the trash and stopping the trash from reaching beaches. To achieve this, they are collaborating with a number of partners from industry and government to find solutions to reduce trash on our beaches, all towards a target of no more beach clean-ups in 10 years. A workshop in late July gathered representatives from brands, plastic manufacturers and suppliers, government, waste management companies and recycling companies, to agree the terms of reference for a multi-stakeholder workshop to be held in November. Further events include the ICC event, a workshop with plastic specialists Plasticity in October and the final workshop in November. All these workshops in this plastic waste campaign are co-led by RCM and Coca-Cola. The organisers have recruited many partners and volunteers across the country, who will be joining them in many locations on September 2 (updated locations are posted on their Facebook group). If you want to commit to organizing a team of volunteers (friends, family, colleagues) for a few hours on that day, please email to organisers (cleanup@reefcheck.org.my) so that they can send more information on how to organize a beach clean-up and collect data which will help them identify long-term solutions for trash-fee seas.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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05Sep

Hotel staff show artistic talents

SANDAKAN: Associates of The Four Points by Sheraton Sandakan initiated a drawing competition to commemorate the 61st Malaysian Independence Day. The theme, which is based on this year’s theme ‘Sayangi Malaysia Ku’ received an overwhelming response and the three external judges, Roslee Jaafar (professional art and culture), Emilina Gustin (head of dental unit) and Eva Mohamad (Zumba instructor and teacher), were captivated by the final products of the talented staff. Roslee complimented the hotel’s general manager, Peter Padman, for having such a motivated and joyful team of employees while commenting that he was in awe of the 10 final artworks which expressed so much detail and love by the associates for their much adored country, Malaysia. When asked why this drawing competition was organised, Peter said that his team had been working so hard over the past few months with so many new implementations within the company, and with the ongoing integration of Marriott International with Starwood, he felt that his fellow colleagues could do with a break from the daily routine which had somewhat been quite stressful lately. He added that the associates, who were a team of Malaysians, expressed so much passion and love for their country through the drawings and it was brought to reality that a picture does paint a thousand words. The competition, which was open to all 10 departments of the hotel, was won by the Human Resources Department, led by Haeruddin Nurdin, the Human Resources Manager. Their painting represented the various cultural and ethnic groups of the country who live in perfect harmony from the North to the South, from Perlis to Sabah. The various colours were explained in detail as to what it represented, while not forgetting the meaning of the Hibiscus as the National flower and the iconic KLCC tower that showed the progress and development of the country over the 61 years.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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04Sep

Two-hour ROR POP-UP event by Future Alam Borneo team in city centre

KOTA KINABALU: The Future Alam Borneo (FAB) team behind the Borneo Rhythms of Rimba (ROR) Wildlife Festival dropped over to the state capital over the weekend from Sandakan and set up a roving environmental ROR POP-UP stage in the city centre, at the old Social Welfare building. With the objective of bringing environmental awareness to the public, and supported by the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry and Kota Kinabalu City Hall, FAB curated a short two-hour programme on marine conservation issues here in Sabah. With the collaboration of WWF-Malaysia and Scubazoo Images, the event projected large visuals on the wall of the abandoned building, courtesy of a high-powered laser projector from Panasonic. Video footage featured the beauty of Sabah Borneo’s marine biodiversity, as well as shocking images highlighting the issues of turtle poaching, shark finning, and plastic pollution in Sabah oceans. The evening also saw musicians Hezekiah Asim, a sape player from Sarawak and the electronic sounds of Avery Fos (a Sabahan & Bruneian duo) complement the visual messages. Dr Robecca Jumin, Head of Marine Programme, WWF-Malaysia Marine Programme who gave a short presentation that night, enthused, “This collaboration between creative musicians and conservation work made the message even more emotional and impactful tonight.” The ROR POP-UP event was a precursor to the upcoming Borneo RORWildlife Festival to be held next month on Sept 15-16 at Nexus Resort & Spa, Karambunai, with an international list of world-renowned conservationists, creatives and musicians; all in Sabah to help the state promote its natural heritage to Malaysians and to the world. Anton Ngui, Chairman of Future Alam Borneo, added at the end, “We hope there will be more opportunities such as these to share and engage with our fellow Sabahans as we look to preserve our unique natural heritage.”   Source: New Sabah Times
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04Sep

No plastic straws, polystyrene food packaging in cafeteria

KOTA KINABALU: Institut Sinaran pledged to phase out plastic straws and polystyrene food packaging from its cafeteria in honor of the 2018 “Beat Plastic Polution” World Environment Day. Institut Sinaran CEO Yong Pik Hua said plastic products were low cost and vast in its range but were detrimental towards the health of living beings and the environment. She pointed out that 91% of the world plastic waste are not recycled and takes 500 to 1,000 years to degrade. “The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has recognized vinyl chloride, the precursor to PVC, as human carcinogen (a substance capable of causing cancer in living tissue),” said Yong at the Institut Sinaran Environment Day 2018 closing ceremony at the campus grounds here yesterday. “The danger of plastic pollution should be incorporated in our school curriculum so that we can fight the plastic pollution more effectively. We at Institut Sinaran are also joining this fight. “Today, I am delighted to announce that the institute’s cafeteria will eventually phase out the usage of plastic straws and the use polystyrene food packaging,” she added. As part of its environmental efforts, Yong said 110 students and staff collected a whopping 125kg of rubbish while running the Institut Sinaran Environmental Run at Likas Bay on July 28. Besides that, she said the institute organized a talk on the major detrimental impacts of the little plastic drinking straws on August 6 whilst 68 of its students and staff planted 158 forestry Urat Mata Beludu, Kapur Paji and Seraya Tembaga seedlings at the Pusat Sejadi Recreational Forest Kawang, managed by Sabah Forestry Department on August 18. Attended by Deputy Chief Minister and Tourism, Culture and Environment minister Christina Liew, a total of 188 students from 10 schools throughout Sabah participated in the three contests, “YB Minister, we have something to say”, Choral Speaking and Environment Video, organized in conjunction with the Institut Sinaran Environment Day 2018. “On behalf of the Board of Governors and the Sinaran families, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for YB’s (Liew’s) support in providing us a total amount of RM20,000 as financial support for the Institut Sinaran Interschool Environment Day activities. Today would not have been possible without YB’s assistance,” said Yong. “To Hap Seng Properties Sdn Bhd, we are also very grateful for the financial assistance you have given us,” she noted. Kota Kinabalu Hakka Association chairman Datuk Jimmy Yong Kyok Ming, Institut Sinaran Board of Governors chairman Fong Tet Kong, Sabah Environment Department director Tunku Khalkausar Tunku Fathahi, Sabah Environmental Protection Department deputy director Vitalis J Moduying, Hap Seng Properties general manager David Wan and Kota Kinabalu Hakka Association fourth vice chairman Ling Kon Pau were also present during the closing ceremony.   Source: Borneo Post Online
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