KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — The Gunung Apeng National Park Serian in Sarawak can have 10,000 new trees planted over the next 10 years from 2024.
The effort is a part of The Nippon (*10*) and Japan Malaysia Association’s (JMA) long-term programme to restore and protect the rainforest in Sarawak.
The tree-planting programme will see 15 to 20 scholar volunteers from Japan flying in 4 occasions a yr to conduct afforestation and instructional actions in Sarawak for 10 days every time.
According to the inspiration chairman, Tan Sri Yohei Sasakawa, the target of the programme is to restore the rainforest and make sure the ecosystem stays intact.
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Nippon (*10*) chairman Tan Sri Yohei Sasakawa will meet with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim later as we speak. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
“The tropical rainforests in Borneo proceed to decline and many residing creatures, together with orangutans, are shedding their properties.
“One of the components contributing to the difficulty is deforestation and lack of trees.”
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Sasakawa stated the mission goals to present Japanese college students with firsthand expertise of Borneo’s historical past and the problems surrounding tropical rainforests equivalent to biodiversity via volunteer tree planting.
“We additionally hope to have Malaysian college students be part of in volunteer actions with the intention of selling change between Japanese and Malaysian college students.”
The first and second teams of scholars will begin the tree-planting programme in February and March 2024 respectively.
Sasakawa additionally stated JMA has been conducting tree planting actions in East Malaysia since 1995 to restore tropical forests in collaboration with the Sarawak state authorities, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and native communities.
He stated the rationale they began to keep in Sarawak and focus their efforts in the Borneo state was to get higher outcomes.
“Sustainability might have turn out to be a buzzword as we speak however most efforts or the folks behind them are usually not even sustainable.
“Hence we determined to have a sustainable effort for higher outcomes.”
To date, JMA has planted over 800,000 trees in Sarawak with an funding worth of roughly RM12 million.
The affiliation additionally carried out mangrove forest restoration in Kedah and Pahang between 2019 and 2022 for flood mitigation.
Present on the media round-table dialogue have been additionally JMA president Takakazu Ogawa and govt director Takashi Moribayashi.
Sasakawa and his group are in Malaysia for a working go to to strengthen ties between Malaysia and Japan in the realm of sustainability.
During his go to to Malaysia, Sasakawa has met with Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and is anticipated to pay a courtesy go to to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim later as we speak to focus on varied areas in sustainability efforts.
