Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Forestry Department in its continued commitment towards mangrove conservation has designated 3.10 hectares within the Sulaman Lake Forest Reserve in Tuaran to be planted with 11,000 mangrove saplings over a period of five years.
This comes following the extension of the memorandum of understanding between the Sabah Wetlands Conservation Society and the department here on the Mangrove Restoration and Rehabilitation project.
In a statement from the conservation society, under the project which was held over the past five years, around 25,000 mangrove trees were planted and over 5,000 of participants, comprising communities, both local and foreign students from Japan and Singapore, were educated on the importance of environmental education, particularly in the Mangrove Conservation Experience Programme.
This project was made possible through the generosity of Mullion Co. Inc., Japan (2009-2014), Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (2014-2015) and other Environmental Education Programmes conducted by SWCS.
This project is now being extended with a focus on targeting educators and trainers with the same ultimate goal ‘to create the stewards of the environment’.
This extension project will not only cover the mangrove tree planting effort but it will be conducted in various stages, which include capacity building workshops for educators and trainers, environmental education programmes for secondary and tertiary students and public awareness and outreach programmes will continue to be held around Kota Kinabalu area and the neighbouring districts.
Sabah Forestry Director Datuk Sam Mannan welcomed the move from the society to restore mangroves for its importance as the biological barriers against tsunami, storms, typhoons, floods and other natural disaster.
He further said the department never shies away from propositions to collaborate with other agencies on conservation, especially in critical areas such as this, which is also an important habitat for many terrestrial and aquatic plants as well as coastal and marine animals.