Community patrolling in Tun Mustapha Park, Sabah. Photo courtesy of WWF-Malaysia Eric Madeja.
KOTA KINABALU: WWF-Malaysia congratulated the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment on its recent announcement to extend 2.031 million hectares of its Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by 2025.
The MPA extension is a step towards achieving Aichi Target 11, under the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020; as well as the delivery of United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14.
“WWF-Malaysia hopes that the Sabah Government’s great effort does not end here. The extension should also be applied to increased effective management of the MPAs, with inclusive participation by the local communities – through active engagement and clear provision of benefits for coastal communities,” said Ms Monique Sumampouw, Interim Head of Marine, WWF-Malaysia.
Well-managed MPAs are beneficial towards coastal communities through protection of food security and sustainable livelihood, highly contributes towards marine biodiversity and conservation, and provides strong resilience towards the impacts of climate change.
WWF-Malaysia looks forward to seeing Malaysia move forward within the Malaysian CTI National Plan of Action (NPOA) MPA goal – under the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF).