South of Johor:
July – September 2025
Stakeholder Engagement Meetings
Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) held three stakeholder meetings with local schools and the Majlis Perbandaran Pengerang (MPP) to plan future conservation activities. Teachers from SMK Pengerang Utama and SK Kampung Baru Pasir Gogok expressed strong enthusiasm for 2025 awareness programs, supported by guidance from the Kota Tinggi District Education Office on effective school outreach.
Meanwhile, during the meeting with Majlis Perbandaran Pengerang (MPP), we organised a boat excursion at Pasir Gogok, joined by YDP En. Norazmi bin Haji Amir Hamzah, who expressed strong support for protecting mangroves and seagrass in Pengerang. The trip along Sungai Santi and Sungai Lepau allowed participants to observe seagrass, seaweed, mangrove propagules, and local livelihoods such as fishing and aquaculture—highlighting the link between communities and healthy ecosystems. The event strengthened partnerships and encouraged dialogue on sustainable coastal management.
Meeting with representative from SK Kg. Baru Pasir Gogok with Kota Tinggi District Education Office
Boat excursion and stakeholder consultation session with MPP and PITSB
Kicking-off School Awareness Programs
Our colleagues conducted an awareness session with 129 students from SMK Pengerang Utama, introducing coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass through interactive demonstrations. Fifty students later joined us in the International Coastal Cleanup (second session) with teachers and PITSB volunteers, collecting 430 kg of marine debris (4,571 items). As a follow-up, students will repurpose some of the waste to create a marine debris replica, turning cleanup efforts into a creative learning project.
In our first session with SK Kampung Baru Pasir Gogok, we were joined by 68 students. We introduced the issue of marine debris alongside coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass through an engaging Yes/No quiz. In Session 2, 31 students and 2 teachers, with support from a PITSB volunteer, established a mangrove nursery, planting 50 propagules. These seedlings will be nurtured for several months before being transplanted along the coastline, allowing students to actively contribute to mangrove restoration.
Students sorting out rubbish collected during the beach clean-up
Mangrove propagule planting session with students from SK Kampung Baru Pasir Gogok
Checkout these stories
From Depleted Seas to National Food Sovereignty: Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Reality
Of Coral Reefs and Food Security Just last week, I spoke about the relationship between coral reefs and food security, and how the Reef Check method assesses the health of coral reefs. You can read about it here. This week, it was discovered that the traditional...
Reflecting on 10 Years of Community Empowerment
The Beginning of CMCG The Tioman Marine Conservation Group has been successfully implementing conservation programmes for over 10 years now – all of it done by people from the local community who we have trained up. The group is now led by Shahir, our Programme...
Checking the Ocean’s Pulse: How the Reef Check Method Diagnoses Marine Health and Protects Local Livelihoods
Assessing The Health of Our Reefs Just like a doctor runs a diagnostic checkup on your health, marine conservationists use the standardised global Reef Check Survey Methodology to evaluate our underwater ecosystems. By deploying trained divers who are called EcoDivers...