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Sabah Updates: April – June 2024
tackling coral bleaching in sabahAs you may already know, RCM staff in all our locations have been actively monitoring coral bleaching. In Sabah, we’ve been working closely with local stakeholders, NGOs, and governmental organisations such as Sabah Parks, for both our...
Cintai Tioman: April – June 2024
annual reef health monitoring reveal bleached sitesOver in Tioman Island, our team of RCM colleagues, together with the Department of Fisheries Malaysia (DoF), volunteer EcoDivers and members of the Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) recently completed the annual...
Cintai Mersing: April – June 2024
annual Reef Check Surveys capture coral bleachingOur colleagues were joined by EcoDivers from among the local community of Sibu Island as we kicked off our annual Reef Check surveys in the Mersing Islands. Additionally, with the support from the divers from Department...
Cintai Redang: January – March 2024
2024 marks the second year since RCM began working in Redang Island. Let’s look back and some of our achievements on the island in 2023:6 Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG) members received their Open Water Dive license5 RMCG members are now EcoDivers and are...
Sabah Updates: January – March 2024
kota kinabalu “wanis” at sabah (sustainable development goals) SDG ConferenceIn January, the ‘Pertubuhan Wanita Kampung Song-Song’ (WANIS) attended the Sabah Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, where they presented their successful initiatives in empowering...
Cintai Mersing: January – March 2024
Mooring buoys to protect reefsWe have successfully installed an additional eight mooring buoys at various snorkeling sites in Mersing islands’ which includes Pulau Harimau, Pulau Tengah and Pulau Besar. This activity was conducted in collaboration with Mersing...
Cintai Tioman: January – March 2024
The battle against ghost netsGhost nets are a serious threat to marine life such as turtles, fish, crabs and even dolphins, as it can cause death due to entanglement. Tioman Island has seen a fair share of these nets in the last few years. In the first quarter of...
Community Engagement for Plastic-Free Kuala Lumpur and Beyond
Author: Chook Jia Wei and Arockia E J Ferdin Plastic waste mismanagement at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. 📸 credit: Chook Jia Wei Plastics and usPlastic is not just around us; it's in our bodies, the food we eat, and the water we drink. Managing plastic waste...
Cintai Redang: October – December 2023
Our colleagues on Redang recently signed an MoU with SK Redang in October 2023. This marks the start of a collaboration between us and the school. We also had the opportunity to meet some of the students, who were eager to find out about our activities. The school...
East Malaysia Happenings: October – December 2023
CINTAI MANTANANIOur “Homestays Improvement Program” that we began in Mantanani has been progressing rather well. After several training sessions with the local homestay owners, they were equipped with better skills to run their business. The two-year project called...
Building Up Resilience in our Coral Reefs
In my last post, I talked about “building resilience” – in fact, that was one of the recommendations in our 2022 Annual Coral Survey Report for Malaysia. But how do we actually go about doing that?Resilience factorsAccording to colleagues who know more about coral...
Time to Focus on Resilience
Resilience based management is about adapting management actions to sustain ecosystems and social well-being. Resilience is a topic that we have covered before, but it’s worth revisiting because it is increasingly being used in coral reef conservation circles in the...
The 30×30 Target – The Forgotten Bit
In my previous post, I talked about the recent signing of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and tried to describe the treaty in its entirety. Now it’s time to look at some of the details – and how we implement the treaty. That’s where the devil lies.The...
Overview of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
So that just happened, back before the holidays. After all the waiting, months – in fact, years – of delays, numerous rounds of meetings, political wrangling (and probably a bit of Machiavellian intrigue and plotting, thrown in for good measure too!!)…at the 11th...
Reef Check Malaysia Looking Back On 2022
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...
How Serious Are We Really About Protecting Coral Reefs?
Coral reefs are sometimes described as “the rainforests of the sea”, a phrase used to capture the vast biodiversity that they harbour. But at the same time, they are often (mis-)treated as “the invisible ecosystem” because, unlike actual rainforests, they are to all...
Let’s Talk About Management (Part 2)
In an earlier post, I talked about the management of marine resources in Malaysia – what it is we are managing and some of the key challenges. I highlighted what I think are some gaps in management; this article looks at how we can fill some of those gaps. Defining...
Tioman Island, 20 Years Later
I just spent a few days on Tioman island, one of the islands off Malaysia’s East coast (yeah, I know how lucky I am). With me were a couple of old friends who used to dive with me back in the day when I ran a dive centre on the island (yeah, I really do know how lucky...
Managing Marine Resources – Let’s Talk About It
Let’s talk about management…of marine resources, that is. The original idea for this article was to discuss how we are managing Marine Parks in Malaysia. But the scope quickly broadened out to include the question: which marine resources should we be managing? Are we...
Reef Check Malaysia’s 15th Anniversary
Today, 3rd August, marks the 15th anniversary of Reef Check Malaysia. Who would have thought that an organisation that started off with one full time staff would grow into an organisation with national programmes and field staff in four locations (and counting!!). Our...