Presentation of souvenir to Dr Arthur Chung (3rd from right) by Yvette Harvey-Brown of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) cum Head of the Organising Committee during the Opening Ceremony, witnessed by other officials on stage.
SANDAKAN : – A five day’s Workshop on Conservation Planning for Malaysia’s Critically Endangered Tree Species is convened here beginning Nov 11.
It is organised by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), led by Yvette Harvey-Brown and hosted by Sabah Forestry Department, led by Dr Joan Pereira.
The conversation is supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability of Malaysia, the Forestry Department said in a statement today
Besides BGCI, the IUCN Species Survival Commission and Conservation Planning Specialist Group also co-facilitate this workshop, financed by Franklinia Foundation.
The workshop is held at the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sepilok.
During the organisation of the workshop, vital input was provided from a technical committee consisted of the Sabah Forestry Department, Forest Department Sarawak and the Forest Research Institute Malaysia.
Group photo of the participants of the Workshop.
Participated by some 50 participants from over 25 institutions, including governments, NGOs and universities from across Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.
The workshop focuses on the priority actions that are needed to save Malaysia’s Critically Endangered tree species.
It is building upon the vitally important work of Malaysian partners to assess their tree flora on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Tree species.
Malaysia has embarked on the plant conservation assessment journey since 1995, and now over 3,200 tree species have been published.
In this workshop, it is hoped to build on this considerable achievement and use the newly available information from the assessments (e.g. distribution data, threats, populations size etc.) to scale up conservation planning for Malaysia’s threatened tree species.
Malaysia has over 5,000 native tree species and it is one of the world’s mega-diverse countries. At least 1,389 tree species are endemic and of those, at least 648 of these are threatened with extinction.
Malaysia, therefore, plays a crucial role in the coordinated conservation of these unique species to prevent their extinction.
The organiser is looking forward to utilising the invaluable expertise present at the workshop to scale up actions for Malaysia’s unique and threatened diversity.
The workshop was officiated by the Chief Conservator of Forests, Sabah, Datuk Frederick Kugan, with his speech delivered by the Deputy Chief Conservator (R&D), Dr Arthur Chung.
