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South of Johor: October – December 2024
Bringing Mangroves to Life: School-Based Nursery 28 students from Standards 1–3, along with 5 teachers and 2 PITSB (sponsors) volunteers, participated in a session to set up a mini mangrove nursery at SK Kampung Baru Pasir Gogok. The students and teachers prepared...
Cintai Tioman: October – December 2024
Successful completion of a year-long school programIn this final quarter, our Cintai Tioman team conducted 3 school programs with SK Mukut and SK Tekek, involving both indoor and outdoor activities. In 2024, we successfully conducted a total of 25 school education and...
Sabah Updates: July – September 2024
tackling coral bleaching around sabahIn the last three months, our colleagues in Sabah have been conducting coral bleaching monitoring in many sites, with results that show varying levels of bleaching. The surveys were done with the help of members of our Community...
Cintai Mersing: July – September 2024
Guardians of the Coast: United for Beach and Underwater Clean-UpsBetween July and September, our Mersing team conducted and co-organised four underwater clean-ups at Pulau Tinggi, Pulau Besar and Pulau Harimau and removed a total of 293kg of ghost nets and marine...
South of Johor: July – September 2024
Hands-On Marine and Ecosystem Education for South of Johor's YouthThis quarter, we conducted several indoor and outdoor education and awareness programmes for the two schools we work with. We engaged with almost 70 students from SK Kampung Baru Pasir Gogok in several...
Cintai Tioman: July – September 2024
Monthly Monitoring Safeguards Coral Reef Health Every month, members of the Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) carry out regular monitoring and cleaning at the reef rehabilitation sites to check on the growth and health of the corals. In order to protect corals...
Kod Blue: Laut Needs You 2024
Kod Blue 2024 volunteers all ready to do their cleanups Reef Check Malaysia’s Kod Blue: Laut Needs You 2024 (Kod Blue 2024) is part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) effort. This is the second year RCM has organised this event, which included activities such...
Cintai Redang: July – September 2024
Skills Training to Contribute to Marine Conservation ActivitiesIn July and August, 7 members of the Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG) completed their training and are now certified EcoDivers. The training was conducted in three sessions at DM Scuba Dive Centre...
Cintai Redang: April – June 2024
RMCG’s various clean up efforts In April, our colleagues and members of the Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG) came together to remove a reported ghost net weighing 40kg. Following this dive, they also managed to remove almost 70 Crown-of-Thorns starfish, whose...
South of Johor: April – June 2024
collaborative efforts to advance education and awareness programsOur colleagues began this quarter by conducting two separate meetings with SMK Pengerang Utama and SK Kampung Baru Pasir Gogok, to discuss the proposed school awareness programme and activities for the...
Building Resilience for Long Term Reef Health
Resilience? Again?Yes, those of you who have read my posts before will notice that I have talked about resilience before (here and here). So why am I speaking about it again?Because I believe that ensuring our reefs – and other marine ecosystems – are resilient is...
How Resilient is Malaysia’s Tourism Model?
Happy Global Tourism Resilience Day! Tourism is in the news again. It’s Global Tourism Resilience Day on Saturday (more below), which is a nice juxtaposition to recent local happenings. Just a few days ago (11th February), the Malay Mail carried an article with the...
Reef Check Malaysia Welcoming 2024
Our vision remains the same: sustainably managed coral reefs in Malaysia. If 2023 ended with a flurry of activity, 2024 has started with a bang! Some years come to a quiet end as programmes are put on hold during the monsoon season. Not so 2023! All our teams, in...
Wrapping Up 2023 and Looking Forward to 2024
Reflections on COP 28COP 28 did reach an agreement – which seemed unlikely just 2-3 days ago! Is it strong enough to push the urgent changes needed to restrict global heating to the 1.5oC scientists tell us is necessary? That remains to be seen. But at least a...
Is Malaysia Becoming A Mass Tourism Destination?
Overcrowded islands are going to downgrade the tourist experience. First it was Tioman and the proposal for a new airport. Then there were rumblings about extending the airport at Redang…then we heard about two new resorts at Perhentian Island…and the latest – a...
Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: Target 22
Local communities should be involved in decisions on the management of natural resources that may affect their livelihoods After a busy few months focusing on a proposed airport development on Tioman Island, it’s appropriate to return to the post-2020 Global...
Tioman Airport Decision: A Watershed in Biodiversity Conservation?
The decision last week by the Malaysian government to shelve the proposed airport development on Tioman island is both welcome, and timely, for many reasons. Conserving Tioman’s natural resourcesThe most immediate and important reason, of course, is that it paves the...
Nuance or Sledgehammer: What’s the Best Communication Technique?
It’s not often that epistemology, empiricism and the use and descriptions of words, and how they are used, creeps into my pieces. But today it did. A little.I was reading this piece in the Guardian while sipping my morning tea:The headline for the article reads: As...
Is It Warm Enough For Ya?
Some people believe that “bad news” messages turn an audience off. No one wants to hear depressing stuff. But sometimes, I think, we need to do just that – put the facts out there because things are so serious that we can’t bury our heads in the sand anymore.That was...
Reflections On Ocean Month
World Reef Day is celebrated on the 1st of June every year The ocean covers over 70% of the planet. It supports humanity’s sustenance and that of every other organism on Earth. The ocean produces at least 50% of the planet’s oxygen; it is home to most of Earth’s...