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Citizen Action for Tigers!

MYCAT initiated the Citizen Action for Tigers (CAT) programme in September 2010 to better protect the Sungai Yu Tiger Corridor.

The Corridor is a narrow stretch of forests surrounding Sungai Yu, located 15km south of the Taman Negara entrance in Sungai Relau, Pahang. It is the only link connecting the two largest tiger landscapes in Peninsular Malaysia (the Main Range and Greater Taman Negara).

Stateland forests around Sungai Yu provide easy access to interior forests and are vulnerable to poaching pressure as everyone, from local villagers and aboriginal people to foreign agarwood collectors, can enter the forest without a permit. Poachers plan their illegal activities, working extra hard to extract wildlife and timber on weekends and public holidays when wildlife and forestry enforcement personnel are not on duty.

CAT enables concerned members of the public to do their part for wildlife. The programme started with CAT Walks, whereby volunteer naturalists deter poaching by their mere presence and additional watchful eyes at poaching hotspots on weekends. VOLUNTEERS ARE NOT CONDUCTING PATROLS OR RESEARCH.

If they encounter any suspicious activities, they contact the Wildlife Crime Hotline, managed by MYCAT, and we relay the information to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP).

Following the success of CAT Walks, DWNP endorsed the CAT programme and suggested an expansion of CAT to include Taman Negara. Therefore this year, MYCAT together with DWNP introduces CAT Trailblazer. In Trailblazer, DWNP staff and CAT volunteers backpack the Taman Negara border for up to 5 days. Volunteers essentially assist DWNP staff in maintaining the park border, which is important to prevent illegal encroachment into Taman Negara. They also keep an eye out for illegal activities and document tiger signs.

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Check out for future CAT trips at the Calendar of Events or join our Yahoo e-group / Facebook page. To be sure that you won’t miss the trips, drop an email with your full name and contact number to mycat.so@malayantiger.net. Together we can help keep Sungai Yu Tiger Corridor and Taman Negara safe for wildlife.

RIVER RANGERS

Prawns? Crabs? Fish? No, they’re not menu items in a Seafood restaurant, but some of the animals you can find living in our rivers! Yes, that’s right. Our rivers and its surrounding natural habitat are home to a wide variety of animals and insects and through the RIVER Ranger Programme, everyone can learn more about them as well as many other aspects of rivers.

But why would we want to know more about rivers?! Yes, yes, we know it’s the era of computers, tv, cars and shopping malls, but do you know where our most basic necessity, water, comes from? Well, 97% of our drinking water comes from our rivers! And if any of you have taken a look around lately, our rivers are not exactly in the best of health. Only 50% of our rivers remain ‘clean’ and many of our urban rivers have been straightened and channelised and developed right up to its banks. Let’s just say we’re sitting on the fence right now and we can either act now and do something about it or let the rest of our rivers perish.

The RIVER Ranger Programme is an environmental education programme developed by Global Environment Centre (GEC), which focuses on water and river management. Through the Programme, participants learn more about water and river related issues in Malaysia and what they can do to help. There is also a field component where they are taken to the nearest river and trained on how to be a ‘Young River Scientist’; they are taught how to take water samples and measure water quality using a very simple water testing kit, and most importantly, learn how to use bio-indicators as an indication of water quality. Most people have forgotten this aspect of rivers – that they are living entities and are home to all sorts of freshwater species. And it is not just special rivers that have life in it, ALL rivers in their natural environment support life. The problem now is that many rivers have been stripped of their natural environment which enables them to be alive.

Another interesting and simple activity in the RIVER Ranger Programme is the River Report Card. Basically it is a simple tool for everyone to use to assess the health of their river. It makes use of your eyes, ears and nose to observe what is going on around in your river’s environment. Is there a smell coming from the river? What colour is the water? Is there any development in the area? All these questions are important and at the end you add up your marks for each section to determine the health of your river.

Anyone can be trained as a RIVER Ranger. All you have to do is visit www.riverranger.my to find out more about the programme and get our contact details from there! We’re happy to train anyone who’s interested in taking care of our rivers. If you’d like to get a taste of being a RIVER Ranger, you can also download the River Report Card from the website and assess the health of the river nearest to you. Once you’ve got your score, email us your marks and score so that we can keep track of rivers that have been assessed! Your results will also be highlighted on the River Ranger Website for everyone to see!

Need more information? Contact our River Care team for more details!

Dr. K. Kalithasan (Coordinator – River Care Programme)
Azli Abu Bakar (Senior Programme Officer)
Jagadeswari Marriappan (Programme Officer)

“The TrEES School Programme has done something that no other has done before this. That is the programme has made us “wake up” to the surroundings and the global concerns on our environment. It has made us realize that we are the youth on whose shoulders lies the responsibility of conserving the beauty and vigor of forests. The programme has thus instilled in us, a sense of belonging which we never felt before.”

TrEES school programme “Young Voices for Conservation” harnesses the spirit and energy of the youth to create positive change in themselves and the community around them.

The greatest thing we can do for our young people is to prepare them for life, by providing them with tools and skills they will need to succeed. Young Voices for Conservation does just that. The programme allows the youth to explore their creativity, unlock their hidden potential, and to achieve extraordinary results.

Now entering its third year, the programme has gained momentum with the participation of schools from Selangor, KL, Putrajaya and Negeri Sembilan. Secondary schools are targeted in this exciting programme that aims to develop future leaders who are passionate and active in conserving the environment. The programme is run with the approval of the Ministry of Education.

TrEES is delighted that AFFINBANK is continuing its partnership with TrEES in “Young Voices for Conservation” for 2013. AFFINBANK will also provide the technical expertise to run the financial training component, a critical aspect of the programme, for the student project teams. Staff from AFFINBANK will provide input into the programme, participate in all the activities run during the programme and form part of the team that evaluates the effectiveness of the students projects

Under the programme, students are trained to become effective role models for their peers and act as agents of change in school and at home, to minimise their impact on the environment. Students participate in training workshops to build their capacity and skills, and in fieldtrips to the forest, to strengthen their connection with the natural environment. During the training workshops, students learn important life-skills such as project planning, financial management, problem solving and communication skills.

Using the skills they have learned, students plan and implement an environmental project in their school. They become mentors to their classmates, showing them how to take action to protect the environment. Their projects are effective because it is by students for students.

Through their passion, the student teams motivate themselves and their classmates to practice the 4Rs’ (Re-think, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) in their everyday actions that become the foundation for their path towards environmental consciousness. Students come to realize that they can be active environmentalists no matter what career they pursue, or what field interests them. The environment affects all things, and is in turn, affected by all things.

AFFINBANK’s investment in this programme is providing immeasurable benefits for the students who are participating, as well as for the nation, equipping young Malaysians with leadership and financial skills as well as knowledge and passion for the environment.

Using the collaborative platform of MYCAT, the  Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) organised and hosted the Malayan Tiger Conservation Workshop in November 2006 with the aim of developing a National Tiger Conservation Action Plan (NTCAP) for Malaysia. This Plan is the common roadmap detailing the direction and specific actions required between 2008 and 2015 to secure a future for wild Malayan tiger populations.

Through this Plan, the Malaysian government has the opportunity to present healthy tiger populations as an exemplar of its on-going efforts to develop economically in a sustainable manner, rather than the Malayan tiger becoming another symbol of the systematic loss of tropical forest and an ecosystem in crisis. The goal for 2020 identified in the NTCAP is: Tiger populations actively managed at carrying capacities across the three landscapes within the Central Forest Spine and connected with functioning corridors.

Four main pillars supporting the overarching vision.

The NTCAP further outlines priority outcomes for each of the objectives and translates these conservation objectives and desirable outcomes into concrete actions, responsible agencies, measurable indicators and realistic time-frames. These details lay out the first phase of the Plan to be carried out between 2008 and 2015; dates that deliberately coincide with the 9th and 10th Malaysia Plans.The importance of accountability and transparency in conservation actions within the NTCAP is implicit, with an in-built evaluation and learning mechanism for a continued process of implementation.

Melalui gabungan kerjasama MYCAT, Jabatan Perlindungan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara (Perhilitan) telah menjadi penganjur dan tuan rumah Bengkel Pemuliharaan Harimau Malaya pada bulan November 2006. Bengkel ini bertujuan membentuk Pelan Tindakan Pemuliharaan Harimau untuk Malaysia.Pelan ini adalah sebuah panduan bersama yang memperincikan arah dan tindakan khusus yang perlu diambil antara tahun 2008 dan 2015 untuk menjamin masa depan populasi harimau liar di Malaysia.

Tujuan Pelan ini adalah untuk mewujudkan strategi pemuliharaan yang menyeluruh tetapi tertumpu dan mampu dicapai, yang memperincikan tindakan-tindakan khusus yang perlu diambil dalam masa lapan tahun akan datang (Fasa I: 2008 – 15) ke arah wawasan menyeluruh untuk menjamin populasi harimau yang berdaya maju di Malaysia pada abad hadapan dan seterusnya. Pelan ini telah dihasilkan berlandaskan dasar kerajaan dan struktur perundangan sedia ada yang berkaitan dengan pemuliharaan hidupan liar.

Melalui pelan ini, kerajaan Malaysia berpeluang menonjolkan populasi harimau yang sihat sebagai contoh usaha berterusannya membangunkan ekonomi secara lestari, dan mengelakkan harimau Malaya menjadi sebuah lambang kemusnahan hutan tropika dan krisis ekosistem.

Matlamat tahun 2020 yang dikenalpasti dalam Pelan Tindakan Pemuliharaan Harimau Kebangsaan Malaysia ini adalah: Populasi harimau yang diuruskan secara berterusan pada kapasiti bawaan merentasi tiga lanskap di dalam Central Forest Spine dan disambungkan melalui koridor-koridor yang berfungsi.

Pelan Tindakan Harimau seterusnya menggariskan hasil-hasil utama bagi setiap objektif, dan cara bagaimana objektif pemuliharaan dan hasil yang diingini akan dicapai melalui tindakan-tindakan khusus, agensi-agensi bertanggungjawab, penunjuk-penunjuk yang boleh diukur, dan jangka masa yang realistik. Ciri-ciri ini membentangkan fasa pertama Pelan yang akan dijalankan antara 2008 dan 2015; tahun-tahun yang juga merupakan tahun Rancangan Malaysia ke-9 dan ke-10.