‘Ultra young’ vanguard of Libaran sea turtles

THIS is a rare story of an ultra young 12-year old who bakes and sells cookies to pay for what he considers urgent conservation in Libaran to beat the march of turtle extinction.

The trigger of it all, he says, was in February last year when his science teacher Cikgu Hafiz at SK Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, showed a video about turtles.

“I saw in the video a guy took a spear and stabbed a leatherback turtle on the back and then I realised that the extinction of the animal will be soon,” recalled Ahmad Iszuddin Ahmad Izham.

Following subsequent google searches, he also read about the prediction on how the leatherbacks were destined for extinction in four to five years.

Ahmad Iszuddin cited the history of extinction to underscore his sense of urgency – why he commits himself to act on his concern.

“Turtles have been around in the world even during the age of the dinosaurs 180 million years ago and, surprisingly, there were 230 to 300 species of turtles before but now there are only seven species left.

“I also heard that the leatherback turtle may go extinct in the next four to five years!” he asserted.

“The largest turtle ever spotted was a 2.5-metre long leatherback,” Ahmad Iszuddin noted.

So the boy is in command of troubling historical facts.

From 230-300 down to a mere seven species left, the little known statistics, he cited, fits the bill of a mass extinction and now the biggest of them all among the last seven looks like going, going gone, too!

Even father Ahmad Izham Khairuddin conceded his son knows more than he does which underscores his bond and commitment to do something to curb the march of extinction via recycled cash from baking and selling cookies.

Stunned by help from a complete stranger Very much stunned by this unsolicited help was Alex Yee, the founder of Friends of Sea Turtles Education & Research (Foster), who said he suddenly received a call last October for a bank account number.

“Out of nowhere, I got an e-mail from Ahmad’s mum who said: ‘I am Azlina from KL, please give me Foster’s bank account number, I would like to send some money to you’!”

Never had or expecting any offer like this, Yee remembered asking: “What’s it for?”

“‘My son has raised some money for the turtle conservation work you are doing and we want to send that to you’!”

How would she know Foster?

Yee attributed it to the power of Facebook or social media where Azlina became aware of what Foster is doing in Walai Penyu Park, Libaran. So where is that money from Ahmad Iszuddin going?

To exactly what he wanted to do – an animal enrichment project where it is spent on the habitat to make it better – keeping the Libaran sea turtle nesting beach clean and trash-free.

The Walai Penyu Park project at Pulau Libaran, 40 minutes from Sandakan, fits his vision and mission.

‘I am very excited to see the turtles’: Ahmad Iszuddin Ahmad Iszuddin had raised enough money to keep a 100-metre of a 800m stretch trash-free for one year for easy turtle landing to lay eggs.

He said he was “very excited” to be at Libaran on March 1 with father, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin, not only to personally erect the sign post on his adopted 100-metre beach plot, but also to join Yee to execute the milestone release of the 30,000th baby turtles.

But rather than just sending the cheque to Foster, it was Yee who insisted that Ahmad Iszuddin fly to Sabah and be at Libaran to witness the March 1 release of the baby turtles.

“I feel that if they just sent the money, it will lose the meaning and significance.

The significance is not the amount ofm money but the genuine intention.

“That’s why I said I would fly down to KL first to meet them which I did last November to get the cheques for RM270 and later another RM600 and invite the boy over to Libaran.”

Not only that, Ahmad Iszuddin also raised money to pay for his airfares.

“He has quite a number of followers on Facebook and when he mentioned he got invited to come to Libaran there were some people who actually sponsored him, saying: ‘Yeah, we want to encourage you – here’s RM100’.

“So there are people who actually followed him online, supported him and gave encouraging words and so that actually helped him as well,” noted father Ahmad Izham.

Reputation raising comment about Libaran So the inevitable question was how he felt about his debut trip to Sabah and Libaran.

His answer especially on his impression of Libaran was itself a great compliment to the accomplishment of the turtle conservation project:

“So far the island is really clean – cleaner than the other places that I have been to and I am so excited to see the (baby) turtles!” From a mountain of rubbish to this new-found reputation, the credit goes to Alex’s Foster Community Beach Cleaning initiative launched in February 2015 which called for daily cleaning by paid villagers who will now benefit from a very young Ahmad Iszuddin’s fundraising efforts.

This unexpected interest from a KL lad proved to be a powerful shot in the arm for Foster.

“This is the first time that I get somebody, a complete stranger who volunteers to pass funding.

The significance is not the amount of money, it is the genuine intention to help the work that I am doing, the amount of challenges that I face,” Yee noted.

“So I am pleasantly surprised and I feel it has validated the work we are doing down here, that is, we are able to reach out to the young generation and that is what this work is all about – the future of the environment,” Yee said.

A positive word from Sabah Wildlife Department Richard Jaikim, Sandakan based Sabah Wildlife Department Officer, praised Ahmad Iszuddin for setting an example to his peers which proves that very young people can also make a telling impact on conservation.

“It also shows that awareness of this special turtle protection project in Libaran has reached beyond the shores of Sabah since the MoU between SWD and Foster was signed in January 2015,” Jaikim said.

Boy acted on his newfound concern But father Ahmad Izham Khairuddin said what makes the difference is his son who is a caring lad “acted on his interest.”

We can see this from a series of actions Ahmad Iszuddin did since seeing his science teacher’s troubling video.

“On February 25, 2017, I enrolled for a workshop called ‘Grow the Goose’ where I learnt how to raise money and how to give back to charity.”

“In March, I went to my first bazaar to start selling cookies and in May, I donated rm1,000 to the Turtle Conservation Society of Terengganu.”

“Then I produced a recipe book and in August 2017, I donated RM470 in Port Dickson and in October, I donated rm270 to Taman Walai Penyu here in Libaran,” he added.

“In August 2017, I did a video to join the first camp of Sunway Wildlife Heroes and I got selected.

“In September I went to Terengganu again for the release of 400 terapins (small species of fresh water or brackish water turtles) but I released only two,” he said.

“In November I also made it to the second Sunway Wildlife Heroes camp where they said I had to do an animals enrichment project where I had to choose an animal and what can we do to the habitat and make it better.

“In the same month of November, I joined the Young Game Changers award and I made it to the Top 10.”

“In December 2017, I started helping Grow the Goose Workshop as a senior to share my experience so I started selling stuff like cookies, books and paintings but it was my mother who taught me how to bake at 6,” said Ahmad Iszuddin.

Based on his personal experience, Ahmad Iszuddin, has this to tell the people of Sabah: “If you have more, give some to charity and be always grateful to what you have.” What does he have to say to his generation of young boys and girls?

“If you feel inspired to help something, do something that will help the environment but never do it alone, do it with family and friends.” But why should they care about things like turtles?

“Because if caring is not important, it’s like war and fighting because people don’t care but if we do care people will also care about the animals and also will keep the earth clean.”

A father’s insight, son’s commitment What is unusual in Ahmad Iszuddin’s case is his intense commitment from such a young boy.

Father Ahmad Izham Khairuddin provided his insight.

“I think the video from his science teacher really made an impact.

“The thing is this generation have a lot of information, they have access to a lot of information on the YouTube etc.

“Even the video of the science teacher on how the leatherback turtle will become extinct because of what people are doing to them and after that he actually googled and checked to find more videos on this.

“He acted on his interest whereas during our time there was no google or YouTube…

“To get information was to go to the library if they have the facts and if they don’t have it’s very difficult but now they (the new generation) can just go to the computer and find all these information,” Ahmad Izham said. – Kan Yaw Chong

Source: Daily Express