Cintai Tioman is a 10-year old programme designed to enhance the resilience of coral reefs and social resilience of the community on Pulau Tioman. Reef Check Malaysia, with the help of Yayasan Sime Darby as sponsor, aims to meet several objectives through the programme, including:
Reducing local impacts to the reefs
Building capacity of local community and empowering them to take greater roles in coral reef conservation and management
IUCN Green List Accreditation for Tioman Island Marine Park
Promoting Land-based Activities on Tioman Island
In an effort to reduce pressure on Tioman’s reefs, we are working together with the Tioman community members in boosting existing land-based activities. Seven jungle trekking tracks, one from each village, were upgraded. Some of the works undertaken were removing fallen trees, clearing the path, replacing old ropes with new one, building steps using natural resources where necessary and establishing new look-out point where suitable.
The levels of difficulty, time to complete, unique floras and faunas usually encountered along the path and attractions such as waterfall land look-out points were recorded.
Our next step will be working on marketing strategies. We hope that these often forgotten and unpopular attractions will gain traction and as a result diversify income and reduce dependence on coral reefs.
NEW MEMBERS RECRUITED FOR TMCG!
Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) is a group consists of Tioman locals and was set up in 2015 to enable locals participation in managing and conserving Tioman marine resources.
A total of 35 new members have joined this group recently from each village and were given a diving course. Welcome and congratulations to all new members! TMCG is sponsored by the Ministry of Finance.
Ghost Nets Removal
A total of 560 kg ghost nets were removed from 8 different sites, on land and in sea.
Munjur Beach Clean-up
A total of 135kg rubbish including 1140 plastic bottles were collected.
Removing and reducing marine debris from our ocean is a long and arduous battle. Thank you to everyone who took part in our cleanup activities over the past few months!
tioman Food Aid
Department of Fisheries Malaysia, MAFI, MSDA and Reef Check Malaysia distributed food aid to Tioman residents who are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total 300 boxes containing food were given to dive centres, fishermen and tourism operators to reduce their burdens.
Study on Importance of Conserving Tioman Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Fisheries
A study was conducted by Department of Fisheries Malaysia together with Reef Check Malaysia on perception of Tioman communities regarding importance of conserving Tioman Marine Park biodiversity and ecosystem, especially on coral reefs and fisheries.
Reef Rehabilitation Programme
Reef rehabilitation programmes were carried out at various places around Tioman since 2011. The aim of this programme is to rehabilitate degraded patches of reefs. Some of the works involve building new coral nursery (to attach broken but still living corals) and monthly monitoring and maintenance.
From July until September, 4 new coral nurseries were added and monitoring and maintenance works were carried out as usual.
Green Hotel Assessment
The Green Hotel Programme aims to encourage resort and chalet operators to conduct their business in environmentally-friendly manners and take steps to protect and conserve natural resources and the environments. This quarter, a total of 10 resorts were assessed based on the ASEAN Green Standard.
Environmentally-friendly operations ensure the natural environment that attracts tourists remain sustainable, thereby ensuring a sustainable tourism industry as well.