Students learn about water transportation process in plants.
KUCHING: The single factor that can mitigate ecosystem degradation, species loss and genetic erosion is good governance.
“The federal, state and local governments have the power but there are limits to what they can do,” said Prof Emeritus Dato Dr Abdul Latiff Mohamad, Research Fellow, Botany and Conservation Biology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
He gave a keynote address yesterday entitled ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Changes and Conservation in Malaysia’ during Sarawak Biodiversity Centre’s Biodiversity Day, held in conjunction with the International Day for Biological Diversity 2018.
Responsing to a question from the floor about what could be done about minimising climate change in Malaysia, he pointed out that each state had the power to change.
Peter Sawal (left) presents Abdul Latiff with a token of appreciation after his talk.
“Your state government has the power to do anything they want if they have the people, the resources, the vision for Sarawak.” he said adding that some states might lack manpower or funds.
However other agents of change include non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as non-governmental individuals (NGIs).
“People like you and me. You can go to your leaders or to your assemblymen and ask them not to deforest an area, gazette an area as a national park, not to de-gazette a forest or destroy a heritage. You can do that. And being leaders, they just have to care more.”
Environmental awareness within the country is still below expectations, he said adding that people get away with a lot of environmental offences here that would get them fined in other countries.
Also present was Natural Resources and Environment Board Controller Peter Sawal.
Other public talks during the one-day celebration included Veera Sekaran of Greenology Singapore who talked about Green Intelligence (GI), a term that he coined for the application of smart solutions on urban greening integrated with science and technology.
Prof Dr Andrew Alek Tuen of Unimas spoke about his university’s contribution to biodiversity conservation under the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation (IBEC).
Sarawak Forestry Corporation’s Victor Luna Amin next talked about ‘Enhancing Biodiversity Conservation: Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Interpretive Communication in the Context of Tourism’.
Photographer Ch’ien C Lee spoke on wildlife photography and its role in biodiversity conservation, while James Bali from Sarawak Forestry Corporation talked about conservation of dugongs, a totally protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998.
Rounding off the series of public talks was Dr Melvin T Gumal from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) with his talk on ‘Conservation by Numbers: 58, 21, 11 and 8 – field Research Data and Conservation Interventions from Orang-utans, Elephants, Tiger and Marine Work in Malaysia’.
Meamwhile, both SBC and NGOs such as WWF and WCS had booths to promote conservation, showcase plants, and show the science of how plants work.
School students, who arrived by the bus-loads, milled around activity centres to learn about various facets of biology, earning little gifts for their participation.