Youth Empowerment in Semporna, Sabah

About Semporna

Semporna is well known for its beautiful diving destinations - every diver's and snorkeller's dream and paradise. Its beautiful and diverse underwater world, white sandy beaches, and turquoise waters make it a famous tourist attraction in Borneo.

Our approach in Semporna is recognising that sustainable conservation is intricately linked to the active participation and empowerment of local communities. We work together with communities from Larapan, Selakan, Mabul and Kulapuan islands.

preserving sabah’s underwater world

We are also working on preserving the beauty of Sabah's underwater world by rehabilitating Sabah's coral reefs.

RCM Team’s Work in Semporna

Rehabilitating Sabah's Coral Reefs

We have established four restoration sites in Semporna and affixed more than 15,000 coral fragments to various artificial structures. To date, seven methods of coral rehabilitation have been utilized, with two to five of these methods deployed at one to three sites on each island.

There are currently:

• 695 Reef Stars,

• 60 spider frames,

• 794 bottle glasses on 143 blocks of Bottle Reefs,

• 87 Coral Clips,

• 10 Coral Culture Table (CCTs), and

• 2 Coral Ropes nurseries,

This means that a total of nearly 997 restoration units. This equates to approximately 16,358 fragments transplanted.

We have also deployed coral fragments using various coral rehabilitation methods such as using the coral block, the MARSS method which includes using reef stars, and the Coral Culture Table in various locations such as Larapan, Mabul and Tun Sakaran Marine Park.

Capacity Building for local youths

Apart from regular coral rehab maintenance, we have delivered a series of capacity-building training sessions for our community marine conservation group (CMCG) members, including ghost nets removal and underwater cleanup, coral bleaching monitoring, reef fish surveys using a modified Roving Diver Technique (RDT) and seagrass monitoring.

We are also working with DHI to prepare a management plan for twelve islands under the Mabul and Pom-Pom clusters.

Marine Conservation Training For Local Youths

As part of our effort to ensure a sustainable marine conservation effort, we embarked on the work to train local youths of the islands to take part in marine conservation work. In pursuant to the success of the Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) and the Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG), we replicated the same module to train and assist passionate youths of the various islands.

To date, we have a total of 53 youths certified as Open Water divers and a selected few are certified as Advance Open Water and Rescue Diver.

These youths are also certified EcoDivers with Reef Check Malaysia and have been trained to carry out marine conservation works such as coral restoration, rehabilitation and maintenance programmes, reef health and bleaching monitoring, coral reefs' threats removal as well as monitoring and assessment on other marine habitat such as seagrass.

These youths are also actively involved in community engagement within their own communities as well as conducting awareness programmes at schools and with the public through social media.

We now have 4 community marine conservation groups (CMCG) assisting us in our work in Semporna and they are Larapan Marine Conservation Group (LMCG), Selakan Marine Conservation Group (SMCG), Kulaupaun Marine Conservation Group (KMCG) and lastly, we collaborate with the youths from Pemimpin Iklim Mabul.

Larapan Waste Management Programme

Larapan Island is located in the district of Semporna in Sabah. It consists of 2 villages - Kampung Larapan Hujung dan Kampung Larapan Tengah, with a population of 1,242 and 140 households.

The waters surrounding Larapan Island are rich in marine biodiversity, especially coral reefs, which are, however, under anthropogenic threat. One of the threats is the lack of a waste management system for the island which makes villagers turn to waste dumping directly into the ocean, open burning, and/or burying on land.

Our team established a waste management programme with the help of the community on the island. The programme followed our successful waste management programme with Cintai Mantanani.

Bins were constructed around the village, community engagement, school awareness programmes and the awarding of ‘Excellent Certificates’ participating households were also done. During the programme, the Daily Waste Collection team collected 600kg of waste on average every month.

School and Community Awareness Programmes

We believe there is a need for more awareness and opportunity for locals to participate in marine conservation. Therefore, we started ocean literacy-based programmes to highlight marine ecosystems' essential value and conservation efforts' benefits.

Our team has conducted various school programmes to spread awareness on marine environment and its conservation to inspire the next generation to care for their environment.

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