Our Objectives:

To promote the conservation of

wetlands in Sabah and the variety

of plants, birds and other kinds of

organisms found in them.

~

To raise public awareness and ap-

preciation of wetlands and public

involvement in protecting wet-

lands.

~

To manage Kota Kinabalu Wet-

land Centre (KKWC) as a model

wetlands centre for the purpose of

conservation, education, recrea-

tion, tourism and research.

Sabah Wetlands Newsletter

June 2011

Sabah Wetlands

Conservation Society (SWCS)

/ Pertubuhan Pemuliharaan Tanah

Lembap Sabah,

was established on

22 August 2005

If you have any enquiries regarding Sabah Wetlands Conservation Society, please e-mail us at swcs@sabahwetlands.org.

Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre, Off Jln Bukit Bendera Upper, 88400 Likas, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Tel: +60 88 246 955 Fax: +60 88 247 955 Website: www.sabahwetlands.org

TOWARDS RAMSAR STATUS FOR KKWC-A JOINT CAMPAIGN

In an effort to create greater awareness on the

importance of conserving mangrove ecosys-

tems and to propel KKWC towards obtaining

Ramsar status—a wetland with international im-

portance which provides the framework for na-

tional action and international cooperation for

the conservation and wise use of wetlands and

their resources—SWCS and Daily Express jointly

organized articles campaign comprising of

eight newspaper publications each featured

every Sunday that runs from the month of May

to July 2011.

The articles deal

w i t h m u l t i -

faceted subjects

ranging from in-

troducing KKWC

with all its species of fauna and flora, the

important functions of wetlands to human

lives and livelihood, the many threats that

KKWC faces in terms of physical, ecologi-

c a l ,

biodi-

versity

and scientific manner and a host of

other issues. All these are geared

towards educating the public on

the need to conserve KKWC for

generations to come and to bring

home the fact that obtaining the Ramsar status would fortify KKWC‟s posi-

tion as an important wetland ecosystem. Therefore, SWCS needs all the

support that it can get which includes—your support!

Coming Forward To Conserve The Wetland — Em-

ployers and 12 staff of Le Borneo Reflexology and

Beauty Spa, Kota Kinabalu, demonstrated their

support for wetland conservation by planting man-

grove saplings during a balmy morning of 4 June in

their work uniform before heading straight back to

work at the spa. Eddie Abdullah, the spa’s manag-

ing partner, said they will do more back at their

spa outlet by promoting awareness and encourag-

ing their customers to donate funds towards plant-

ing more trees. SWCS President, Haji Zainie Abdul

Aucasa (seen in top and bottom pix in white shirt),

was also present to receive the group as well as

helped plant trees, expressed his appreciation for

the support from Le Borneo Spa and hoped more

local companies would come in and contribute

towards wetlands conservation.

Newly appointed Japanese Am-

bassador to Malaysia, Mr. Shigeru

Nakamura, made his first official

visit to KKWC on 24 June. The visit is

an opportunity to get acquainted

with the management of SWCS

and to experience the 1.5 km of

boardwalk in the mangrove forest

of KKWC. SWCS President, Haji

Zainie A. Aucasa was on hand to

warmly welcome His Excellency.

“We saw mud-skippers for the first time and that was a „Wow‟! The

boardwalk is such a great structure as it took

us into the depth of the forest. We heard

quite of lot of birds twittering and whistling

and that delighted us even though they were

hiding among the trees. ”

Tom Fiore & K. Wallstrom, New York, USA,

26/6/2011

“I took my time walking in the man-

grove forest as I‟ve never been to one

before. I must say that it amazes me

and I like it a lot. Please continue to do

the good work of taking care of this

place.”

Gardien Alienor, France, 10/6/2011

Editor-in-Chief: Bobby Alex of KKWC, Supported by Team at KKWC and SWCS; Images property of SWCS

All donations made to the Society are exempted from tax under Subsection 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967.

EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME THROUGH

MANGROVE REPLANTING

2 Mangroves replanting at Sulaman Lake Forest Re-

serve, Tuaran

6 Environmental Education Program for village repre-

sentatives from all over Sabah organized by Rural

Development Department, Sabah

15 International and national participants of the Tanak

Wetland International Camp visit KKWC

19 Launching of the Ramsar panel

Morning walk by participants of the Asian Wetland

Symposium

20 Morning walk by participants of the Asian Wetland

Symposium

19-

24 Arts exhibition by Sabah Visual Arts Association under

the program “Malaysian Tourism Contemporary Art

Trail”

* List is not exhaustive; new events occur from time to

time.

UP AND COMING EVENTS IN KKWC — July 2011 GUESTS’ COMMENTS

Young girls in a group of 40 in

each respective day, followed in

the footsteps of their fellow sisters

who came to plant on 31 May to

experience for themselves what

their predecessors have gone

through. After overcoming their

initial ‘shock’ when seeing mud,

quite unheard of for most, the

Singapore Girls Chinese School

students eventually emerged

‘victorious’ with about 700 man-

grove saplings planted in total!

The youth returns to their cosmo-

politan city of Singapore beam-

ing with pride to have contrib-

uted positively to mother earth.

MAYOR OFFICIATES EXHIBITION HALL—A STEP FURTHER IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

SWCS officially launches the opening of its

Exhibition Hall on 5th June in conjunction with

the World Environment Day. The theme for the

exhibition is “Water and Wetlands”. In his wel-

coming speech, SWCS President, Haji Zainie

Abdul Aucasa said, “We have chosen today

as it is the World Environment Day, which is a

special day. This is one of the main vehicles

through which United Nations stimulates

worldwide awareness of the environment and

encourages political attention and action.

The program enables everyone to realize not

only their responsibility, but also their power to

be agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development.” With the opening of this ex-

hibition hall, KKWC is able to take one step further in its important role of disseminating knowledge and in-

formation on water and wetland ecosystems. The exhibition provides a description of the mangrove eco-

system, one of the 32 types of wetlands described in the Ramsar convention. A section of the exhibition is

devoted on water treatment which highlights the fact that although water covers more than 75% of earth,

the „usable‟ water for all living things including humans is only about 1% of all water that is available.

The official ceremony was officiated by Yang Berbahagia Datuk Abidin Madingkir, Mayor of Kota Kina-

balu. This event is made possible by the generous sponsors from Timatch Sdn Bhd., The Thames Water Au-

thority, Ministry for Tourism and Environment (EAC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Lee Yoon Ling (left) of SWCS

shares a light moment with the

distinguish guests amidst her edu-

cational tour in the new exhibition

hall

Cutting the red ribbon from right:

Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir, Haji

Zainie A. Aucasa and Theresa Hong,

Vice President of Timatch Sdn. Bhd.

1 June

3 June

4 June

WETLANDS OUTREACH AND BEYOND —

THE GOOD BATTLE GOES ON

Nurture them when they are young is in the heart of the

outreach program carried out by SWCS and funded by

CIMB. Students of primary and secondary age groups are

the main targets as

they are our future—

future stewards of

conservation efforts

and it is deemed cru-

cial that the seed of

interest is planted

now. Environmental

Board games are em-

ployed as part of the

educating tools as through these, the

message is spread in an enjoyable

way and thus, more readily absorbed.

J o c e l y n

Maluda o f

KKWC takes

the lead in

carrying out

this program.

Rolling the

dice: An S.K.

L u y a n g ,

Kota Kina-

balu primary

s t u d e n t

does her

spin in order

to move on

in the excit-

ing environ-

m e n t a l

b o a r d

game.