The year 2022 has finally come to an end.

If 2021 was the year of Covid, 2022 has been a year of recovery – and a huge increase in the tempo of our activities, with new programmes starting in Redang island and the Semporna islands in Sabah.

In 2022 our survey programme covered over 200 sites around Malaysia. The apparent small improvement in coral reef health noted in the 2021 data appears to have continued into 2022, when tourism numbers continued to be limited by the pandemic. This supports the idea that fewer visitors can lead to healthier reefs and perhaps closing reef sites would be a useful management tool.

Having recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Fisheries, which manages the Marine Parks in Peninsular Malaysia, I am hopeful that we will be able to work with them to look at some of these ideas in more detail.

Our community programmes go from strength to strength. The Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) is leading the way in community-based conservation. We have now trained 75 local islanders, who are regularly participating in activities including ghost net removal, coral reef restoration and reef monitoring. No more outsiders telling the islanders what’s happening to their reefs – they are collecting that data themselves!

We are seeing increasing support for marine protection among the islanders as more and more people start to understand how the Marine Park can benefit them. We will be replicating the success of TMCG in two other islands in Peninsular Malaysia and 3 in Sabah during 2023. The recently concluded COP 15 has set new targets for biodiversity and it’s great to see local communities taking a bigger role in natural resource conservation.

Sustainability continues to be an important element of our work. From resilience-based management plans for Marine Parks through to sustainable tourism programmes for operators in Sabah, supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment (KePKAS), we are continuing to support healthy reefs – and other marine ecosystems – throughout Malaysia.

Finally, a huge thank you to our supporters, without whom our work could not continue. From individual donors to big corporations and international funding agencies – thank you.

Looking ahead, I can see two trends that are going to dominate marine conservation efforts in the short to medium term.

The first relates to extending and improving the management of protected areas, recently agreed upon at COP 15 as part of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Globally we need to protect 30% of the oceans; Malaysia has a big part to play in identifying and protecting important biodiversity areas.

At the same time, the management of existing areas needs to be improved, with particular emphasis on the role played by IPLCs (Indigenous People and Local Communities), validating all the work we have been doing on community participation in management.

The second thing is carbon, or more accurately, Blue Carbon. Efforts to identify carbon credit schemes are starting to take off; while companies might benefit from the carbon credits generated, this could unlock huge funding for marine resource conservation. We are working with seagrass and mangrove scientists to understand how this will develop.

Healthy communities need healthy ecosystems. Help us to ensure Malaysia conserves and protects these life-supporting assets.