Biodiversity Day 2009

Today, 22 Mei 2009, is declared as Biodiversity Day. What is meant by biodiversity? Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it.

Due to her diverse species of living things, Malaysia has been considered as one of the twelve megadiversity countries. One of the ecosystems that contribute to the high number of species in Malaysia is the coral reef ecosystem. 

To enhance awareness on coral reefs among the officers and staf of Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia, I had been asked to conduct a trip to Pulau Redang Marine Park in Terengganu. This trip will take place on 30 June to 3 July 2009.

 

Malaysia International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 officially closed

Hi, we meet again. Just arrived  from Malaysia Tourism Centre (MTC) [formerly known as MATIC], at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. I went there to attend the closing ceremony of Malaysia International Year of Coral Reef (IYOR) 2008 by the Deputy Minister, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, YB Senator Dato' Maznah Binti Mazlan. This Malaysia IYOR 2008 closing event was organized by Coral Malaysia, Department of Marine Park Malaysia and Malaysia Tourism Centre. YB Dato' Maznah also launched the upcoming campaign for 2009, with the theme is 'Say No to Plastics', in order to save the sea turtles from chocking with plastic bags.

After the closing ceremony, all the guests, together with YB Dato' Maznah than being brought to the 1st floor of MTC building to see the underwater photographs took during the CoRal Malaysia’s underwater photography competition, Terengganu Go Green – Seashutterbug 2008. 

After that, there was a media/press conference and tea break. Then came the important agenda, a dialogue session between the guests and YB Dato' Maznah regarding the issues related to environment especially the coral reefs. Among the guests were the representative from MNS, Perbadanan Taman Negara Johor, WWF Malaysia, Virtual Malaysia, Zoo Negara, MIMA, Dorken Reef Resources and a well-known Malaysia artist, the rock group of WINGS. During the dialogue, I took the chance to highlight about the training programme, especially for the MNS state education coordinators ( as I am) whom have responsibility to educate young generations at school level through School Nature Clubs regarding the marine park/coral reef information. As I am also an officer at Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia, I took the opportunity to inform the dialogue members that the environment issues is one of the important topics that CDD, MOE takes into consideration to be put in the curriculum.

Thanks to En. Nizam of Department of Marine Park Malaysia for inviting me to join this valuable event. To all my new friends from various agencies that attend the closing ceremony, nice to meet you all and please keep in touch.

To all readers, please remember this slogan: OUR Reef, OUR Heritage, OUR Responsibility 

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Notes:

Malaysia International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 was organized in concurrent with IYOR 2008, a worldwide campaign by the  International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them.

Officially launched by Ministry Natural Resources and Environment Secretary General, Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin on 23 February 2008, the IYOR 2008 Malaysia Chapter’s aims include strengthening awareness about the ecological, economic, social and cultural value of coral reef and its associated ecosystem. It also hopes to improve understanding of the critical threats faced by reefs and generating solutions to reduce them.

Program Penghayatan Taman Laut Malaysia Zon Timur Siri 1 2008

Program Penghayatan Taman Laut Malaysia 2008

‘Program Penghayatan Taman Laut’ is a programme established in the year 2006 to promote conservation of the marine park ecosystem through joint responsibility for sustaining mutual benefits derived from such efforts. The activities prepared in this programme seeks to attract the participants’ cooperation and their willingness-to-learn more about the valuable but vulnerable marine ecosystem. The programme had been divided into 3 zones, the Northern Zone (Pulau Payar Marine Park), the Southern Zone (Pulau Tioman Marine Park) and the Eastern Zone (Pulau Redang Marine Park).

As a continuation to the previous years outreach and awareness raising activities, the ‘Program Penghayatan Taman Laut Zon Timur Siri 1 2008’ was being held at Pusat Kokurikulum Negeri Terengganu Cawangan Pulau Redang from 20 to 23 April 2008. The programme was participated by 100  students from various secondary schools around Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Kelantan and Terengganu. Together with them were 10 teachers and more than 22 trainers and co-curricular centre officers from those states.

This programme was co-organized by the Ministry of Education (MoE) through the Terengganu and Selangor State Departments of Education and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment through its Department of Marine Park (Pulau Redang Marine Park Unit). There were also several organizations that involved in this programme such as the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Sea Turtle and Terrapin Rehabilitation Group of University Malaysia Terengganu and Sekolah Kebangsaan Pulau Redang.

The programme aimed to enhance awareness of the importance of marine ecosystem and its flora and fauna conservation amongst the form 4 students as well as the teachers themselves. This year programme also created a history by the launching of the programme theme song entitled ‘Laut Kita’, composed by Mr. Legacy and lyrics by En. Asmadi Abdullah and Puan Hayati Othman.

With guidance from Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Terengganu State Education Coordinator and four trainers cum speakers, and with the help of well-trained trainers and teachers, the programme combined talks on the history and purpose of the marine park; the unique Pulau Redang ecosystems which consist of mangrove forest, coral reef, land and hill ecosystem, flora and fauna as well as outdoor games and other hands-on activities that aimed to deepen the participants’ understanding of the characteristics and functions of the park ecosystems, issues of development and challenges to the marine ecosystem conservation.

The outdoor activities included water confident activity, jungle trekking, mangrove forest exploring, mangrove replanting, snorkeling, and sea turtle sanctuary site visit. For some activities, the students were divided into 10 groups to work together to do the task given to them from the first day till the end of the programme. Such activities were group identity flag and song creation, rubbish and dead leaves and twigs fashion show (these item had been collected during the jungle trekking), mangrove species identification, mangrove replanting, coral identification and coral fish identification.

This 4 days three nights programme had been officially closed by the Selangor Director of the Department of Education, YBhg Datin Hamidah Binti Nordin.