RWMF to be more eco-friendly this year

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A ‘GREENER’ FESTIVAL: Sharifah Hasidah plants a tree to grace the ceremony held at Damai Central, witnessed by (from right) Sarawak Economic Development Corporation’s (SEDC) deputy general manager and its director of tourism and leisure division Wan Lizozman Wan Omar, together with Rashid and Wilfred.

KUCHING: The ‘Tree Planting’ ceremony yesterday at Damai Central marked the Sarawak Tourism Board’s (STB) first serious bid into creating a greener, more eco-friendly Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF 2011).

Though over the years we have taken small steps like encouraging the use of recyclable material at the venue, we felt that this year, we should make it bigger. – Datuk Rashid Khan, STB chief executive officer

“Though over the years we have taken small steps like encouraging the use of recyclable material at the venue, we felt that this year, we should make it bigger,” said chief executive officer of STB Datuk Rashid Khan at the opening of the ceremony.

“We thus came up with the idea of planting trees in line with the government’s aspiration of planting 26 million trees over a five year period from 2010 to 2014.”

Held at the recently launched Damai Central multi-complex, 1,000 seedlings consisting of both hardwood and exotic species were donated by Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) in support of their ‘Greening Project’.

Samariang assemblywoman Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, who came on behalf of State Tourism and Heritage Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, graced the ceremony.

“Our efforts would go some way to balance the carbon footprint from RWMF,” Rashid said, adding that this initiative was also extended to the use of green products and practices at the festival, including STB’s eco-friendly web-hosting provider.

With the world’s increasing focus towards reducing carbon footprints, Rashid stated that part of STB’s concern took into consideration the impact of RWMF which brings in thousands of festival goers every year.

As such, STB is preparing a carbon footprint that will examine the environmental degradation, waste management and other green issues affected by major music festivals such as Borneo Jazz Festival and RWMF.

Waste management from disposables like food containers is a major concern for the event organiser.

“One of the conditions we put this year was that food vendors could not use non-biodegradable materials. We hope that those vendors who have been given contracts to trade at the RWMF will adhere to the agreement.”

In future, STB hopes to replace disposables with reusable items like local bamboo for cups. “Our needs are too great on a commercial basis. We have to start early for the local villages to cut, dry and prepare it to a quality that we accept,” Rashid said, explaining that another far-reaching impact of sustainable tourism was providing the local population with job opportunities.

According to both general managers Wilfred Landong and Rashid, the tree-planting ceremony marked the start of their respective organisations’ joint efforts to more ‘green’ events going forward.

“Conservation is our middle name, we welcome any partner who wants to work together with us on that,” he said, disclosing that one of their future socio-economic plans in future together with the Ministry of Tourism and Heritage would be geared for Santubong National Park.

“One of the things that we want to bring about is the socio-economic benefits, particularly to assist the locals in deriving a sustainable income. We can see one here where the locals will benefit in the long run from tourism dollars.”

The nationwide campaign to plant 26 million trees by 2014 was first initiated in Putrajaya on April 22 last year to commemorate Earth Day. The 26 million trees are meant to represent the country’s estimated population of 26 million people.

As of May this year, Malaysia had planted 8.5 million trees covering an area of 9,611 hectares.