Coral Cay Conservation Award Scholarships For Reef Studies In Perhentian
Added to website: 14 March 2003
Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), a British conservation group have established the Malaysian Conservation Scholarship Awards as part of the “Malaysia Reefs and Islands Conservation Project” (MRICP).
The MRICP is an exciting new British-Malaysian partnership programme initiated by the Marine Parks Section of the Department of Fisheries to further national initiatives to conserve and protect the fragile coral reefs and forests of Pulau Perhentian Kecil and Pulau Perhentian Besar in Terengganu, as well as providing wide-ranging conservation educational and training opportunities for Malaysians.
A number of scholarship awards will be made available to Malaysians who are in full-time education and undertaking studies in a relevant subject at recognised local institutes of higher learning. Each award will include full board and lodging at the MRICP project base at Pulau Perhentian Besar, scuba training, and full training in technical scientific survey techniques and data management. A range of local and national conservation education and awareness schemes will also be initiated during the course of the MRICP.
Professor Bellamy, the world renowned botanist, conservationist, author and TV celebrity, and President of CCC, said, “It was Alfred Russell Wallace, co-author with Charles Darwin of the first publication on the theory of evolution by natural selection, who first opened the eyes of the western world to the wonders of the Malaysian archipelago. Scoping for future volunteers from Malaysia and round the world will turn the spotlight of modern research and vision on the reefs and forests of the fabled Perhentian islands and other locations in Malaysia. The first step is a baseline study towards sustainable development”.
Like most areas of the world with exceptionally high levels of biodiversity, the reefs of Malaysia are under threat from unsustainable utilisation and other potentially destructive human activities. However, Malaysia now has a well established and managed chain of marine protected areas as a result of the Malaysian Government’s continued commitment to conservation. CCC’s partnership with Marine Parks Section will serve to provide vital management data in the short-term, but through the continued development of this partnership, which encompasses the development of a national force of Malaysian conservation volunteers, will hopefully also serve to extend marine and rainforest protected areas throughout Malaysia in the long-term.
Commencing 26 March, teams of British and Malaysian volunteers will join forces for an initial period of three months to undergo technical training courses in scuba diving and conservation assessment and management, prior to undertaking reef and forest surveys within the Perhentian islands. Dependent upon the outcomes of this initial phase, the project may be extended for a further period of three years or more to expand upon this pioneering conservation partnership throughout Malaysia.
