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Singapore International 29 Oct 05 Clean Up the World Imagine walking along a lovely stretch of beach one day and watching the sea gulls glide along the calm waves. You enjoy your stroll. Suddenly, you trip over a few plastic bottles. This might probably be what some tourists encountered during their trips to the Malaysian state of Terengganu, until the local authorities decided to do something to clean up the beaches that were an important aspect of the tourism industry in the Malaysian state. In Perspective this week, join me, Melanie Yip as I speak with Ian Kiernan, Chairman and Founder of Australia-based environmental group, Clean Up Australia, and its sister organization Clean Up the World, on their recent conservation project in Terengganu, Malaysia. IK: Terengganu is a very beautiful part of the world, a very unusual part of the world. Interestingly enough, there's 270 km of beach there. It is the same distance at the four shores of Sydney Harbor where were first started, nearly 3,500 people out there over the last couple of days that have selected their own sites. There were 800 school children Ian adds, IK: Tanjung Jara, the resort there in Terengganu recognized that their beaches were getting dirty, and there was a lot of rubbish around, and it was getting bad for the quality of tourism activity that they were offering. And so they go right behind it, and helped organized this massive clean up. They took out more than a hundred tons of rubbish, a lot of it plastic bottles, a lot of it rubbish that came from the ocean, and had washed up on the beach because we know that marine debris was a major problem today. There was also the release of 500 baby turtles into the ocean because they have a breeding program, and a research pogram there, looking at trying to establish a large turtle colony that used to be there and was now diminished. So it was just a wonderful event. The local government, councils and all sorts of people were there with heavy equipment. It was just great to see the local community taking on responsibility to protect the environment, and at the same time setting a very clear example that the community can really look at fixing up the environmental problems that are there. Much of the project's success was attributed to a strong community understanding about the importance of saving their own environment and sustaining their livelihood, says Ian. IK: I recognize a strong community there, a community that tends to help each other. That's exactly what they did. I mean, from our perspective of Clean Up the World. We don't go tell people to go clean up. It will be arrogant and not well accepted. What needs to happen is people need to go and look at their environmental asset, and realize that they have got some problems. Then they can come to us and we can give them the help that they need, information and how they should make this all happen. And this was a copy-book example of the implementation of a successful clean up. I hope that it will spread through that beautiful coast of Terrengganu, and there is more rubbish to the South and to the North. This project illustrated an international collaboration that saw the need to protect the environment which was everybody's responsibility. IK: What we have to realize is that it doesn't matter what is our color, our religion, our culture. We are all global citizens, we share the environment. And what Clean Up the World, in its friendly way, hopes is to join hands with its global citizens, share information, and learn from each other. That's exactly what weĦŻve done. And what we've got is another wonderful case study of a strong community saying "we have a problem, this is not good enough, we want to do something about it, how do we do it?" There are many communities around the world that can now mimic what the community in Terengganu has done. We were fortunate that the main organizer was a retired captain, Captain Mokh, who is now a very good friend of mine. He put this whole thing together, in absolutely military precision. It was just really wonderful to see it. Ian Kiernan, Chairman and Founder of Australia-based environmental group, Clean Up Australia, and its sister organization Clean Up the World. Captain Mokh, as Ian mentioned, is Captain Mokhtar Bin Mohamad a retired military officer from Malaysia. I asked him how his interest in environmental conservation started. CM: Now, when I was serving in the army, I have been living a lot of my life in the jungle. This contributed more or less to my experience with the environment, and this is my new job which is to become a environmentalist. When I see the lives of the people in the jungle, and how beautiful the greenery is. It turned me from an aggressive man, you know, people who served in the military are aggressive men, and it turned me into loving nature. I'm trying to go closer to Mother Nature. What did you do in this project with your Australian counterpart? CM: Me and my colleague, unfortunately he is not around, we call him Pak Peter. So when we met Jenny Bonnings (one of the coordinators) who was vacationing in Tanjung Jara. She saw a lot of rubbish lying along the beach. We are proud of Terengganu, it has the longest beach in Malaysia. We decided that it was high time that we did something to make the environment more beautiful and to make the people proud of its beaches. Could you tell me more about the environmental situation in Terengganu? CM: It is not really bad in other parts but you know, the sea. Every time, you see rubbish brought by the sea waters because we are facing the biggest sea known as the South China Sea. So that is where the rubbish comes up to the beach, it lies there, and nobody takes care of it. What we are going to do is start from this day. This is where everybody who cares will clean up the rubbish lying along the beach. And what are some of the methods that you have used to tell the locals in Terengganu to protect the environment? CM: It is the beginning point, as I call it. We will start by cleaning up the beach which is 10 km long. Along that beach are four villages. So that is where we try to make the villagers, the people hat live along the beach to understand what will happen if they do not collect this rubbish. The day is what we are going to tell them is that they are going to see themselves how much rubbish they are going to collect. And they must know what the contents of the rubbish are. This will make the lives of the people, whether good or bad. We did not forget that the Chief Minister of Terengganu brought up a motto "Terengganu working to be the cleanest in the country". Besides being a resident environmentalist in Terengganu, you have also worked with local kids in environmental projects, is that right? CM: That's right. So tell us about your experiences working with the youths in the project? CM: What my motto on the children is "they are ambassadors to wilderness, and responsible towards the environment." They are the ones who will continue the task for the future. So what we did was we tried to convert them, we told them what will happen to the environment if they neglected it. We are coming up with a project to teach them how to test the waters, and we are collaborating with a water company. Besides learning how to test the waters, what are some of the other important lessons you want them to learn? CM: One of the important lessons we want them to learn is, they are going to be the ones who will tell others what will happen when they do not keep the environment clean, and the consequences if they do not take care of the earth. They need to do it for the future of the world. And that was Captain Mokhtar Bin Mohamad ending this edition of Perspecitve. For Radio Singapore International, I'm Melanie Yip. links Related articles on Global: general environmental issues |
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