Cintai Mantanani is a long-term effort by Reef Check Malaysia, which strives to ensure the community's economic well-being while protecting our marine environment. Currently, we have a team of three based on Mantanani Island running the projects on the ground relating to waste management, plastic recycling, alternative livelihoods, and community-based tourism. 

WASTE MANAGEMENT PROJECT

On Mantanani Island, we have replaced and repaired the recycling bins around Kampung Padang.

At the same time, we have also installed 5 signage on waste management practices around the village, targeting potential tourist areas. This was done to encourage proper waste disposal habits and also inform the tourists of this initiative on the island.

We’ve also awarded 63 households with a certificate for their excellent performance in our waste management program for the year 2021. This initiative was done to recognize their efforts, commitment, and endless support in ensuring waste is properly managed on Mantanani Island.

On Larapan Island, a total of 105 houses with 950 household members are now participating in our pilot waste management project. We have since collected more than 2,900kg of waste, which has also been properly disposed of. We’ve also successfully organised a Larapan Island Clean-Up Day, attended by 64 participants who collected more than 1,800kg of waste!

COMMUNITY-BASED ECO-TOURISM PROGRAMME

Our Community-Based Eco-Tourism (CBET) is also moving forward on Mantanani Island. Under this initiative, 14 islanders from Homestays Mantanani have been recently trained and certified as First Aid Emergency Responder.

In May, we conducted another assessment for the homestays, using the same ASEAN Homestays Standard. The purpose of this assessment was to evaluate the progress of homestays’ improvement since our CBET Project started. In the previous assessment, Homestays Mantanani scored around 61% while the recent score has increased to 70%, showing a remarkable improvement on certain criteria.

We’ve also had the opportunity to empower 11 homestay operators to develop various promotional materials and packages to promote community-based eco-tourism on Mantanani. We engaged local tourism players such as nature guides and dive guides in the process of compiling all the potential CBET activities. As a result, we have produced and printed a Mantanani CBET Booklet, to promote the local tourism activities that can be found on the island.