KUCHING: World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) has produced a short video titled ‘Forest and Me’ which presents Malaysians’ opinions of forests.
The effort came to light when WWF offices worldwide convened conversations and rallied governments and businesses to pledge action for healthy living forests.
Year 2011 has been declared International Year of Forest (IYoF) by the United Nations to raise awareness on conservation, sustainable development and management of all types of forests.
In recognition of the IYoF 2011, WWF International’s Forest Programme has embarked on a Living Forests campaign to bring a wide range of stakeholders together to find solutions for the many drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and contribute to WWF’s goal of Zero Net Deforestation and Forest Degradation (ZNDD) by 2020.
The video by WWF-Malaysia comprises ‘street interviews’ of people living in two urban centres in Malaysia namely Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu.
The video aims to raise awareness of how a forest is defined by showcasing individual perceptions of forests, its importance and what they expect it to be in the future.
Many of those interviewed were pessimistic about the future of our forests. This perception may have been influenced by the decline in size of forested areas in Malaysia.
In Peninsular Malaysia alone, official government statistics show that the forested area has shrunk from 6,270,000 hectares in 1990 to 5,895,611 hectares in 2009.
It is hoped the video will get more people to think about our forests, the plight of forests as well as the future of forests and their effect on our lives. By creating greater awareness among the public, people may be inspired to do their part, no matter how small, to save the forests left.