World delegates to use table made from Sabah wood

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KUDAT: Driftwood collected from Sabah will be made into a symbolic table to help create awareness on the United Nations’ International Year of Biodiversity.The table, accompanied by 12 chairs, will be used by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other senior delegates at the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, this October.

Symbolising the relationship between poor coastal communities, the oceans and fisheries, this table will be constructed by UK-based sculptor Silas Birtwistle, who has journeyed around the globe collecting driftwood with the help of fishing communities in four distinct locations for biodiversity on the planet – Artic, Meso-American Reef, Coastal East Africa, and the Coral Triangle.

The wood is being collected from the shores of the proposed Tun Mustapha Park at the northern tip of Borneo.

In 2003, the Sabah state government approved the intention to protect the proposed Tun Mustapha Park to address threats to marine biodiversity and to alleviate poverty in the area.

The proposed park will be a multiple-use marine protected area and form part of what is aimed to be a network of marine protected areas in the Coral Triangle — the world’s centre of marine life, which covers the seas of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.

Mainly made of mangrove wood, which is from a key ecosystem that links the land and the sea but is often neglected, this piece will bring the plight of the world’s oceans to the table, literally.

This unique way to profile significant commitments around the world’s species, fisheries and the marine environment will serve as an important platform for key decision makers to gather around in conservation meetings during the UN International Year of Biodiversity and beyond.

The last leg of driftwood collection took place this week around the beaches and nearby islands within the Kudat Priority Conservation Area in Sabah, Borneo, an area plagued by overfishing and habitat degradation.

Well-designed and appropriately-managed networks of marine protected areas and locally managed marine areas are essential to enhance resilience against climate change, and prevent further loss of biodiversity, including fisheries collapse.

Through new sustainable finance mechanisms and investments in climate adaptation, WWF plans to support networks of marine sanctuaries and locally-managed conservation areas across the Coral Triangle.