I was lucky to be able to participate in the recent Society for Conservation Biology’s 2nd International Marine Conservation Congress in Victoria, Canada. I was invited to present a paper at a symposium entitled Science and Policy in the Coral Triangle where I presented a paper on the use of local knowledge in conservation planning in the proposed Tun Mustapha Park (TMP). The on-going zoning process in the proposed TMP under the zoning group (See post on establishment of ISC in TMP) will benefit from the information provided by the local communities of TMP compiled through a rapid community survey in 2006 to 2007.
The Coral Triangle Symposium at the 2nd IMCC was organized by Carissa Klein as part of the the Hugh Possingham/Carrissa Klein’s NCEAS working group that work on supporting decision making in the Coral Triangle. A special newsletter edition on Coral Triangle prepared as part of the symposium can be downloaded at http://ceed.edu.au/dpoint-news/. It highlights various conservation works being carried out on the ground within the region.
Did I mention lucky? Yes, I was lucky as the invitation also came with an invitation to be part of the NCEAS working group meeting held at the NCEAS office in Santa Barbara, California, prior to the symposium. It was an opportunity to continue working on the data we have for zoning of TMP and start documentation of what we have done so far towards establishing a good MPA design for TMP.
Victoria Convention Centre, Victoria, Canada
Whale watching, Victoria
The trip also came with the perks to visit and experience a bit of places like Santa Barbara and Victoria. As a food lover, it’s an adventure of the taste bud – but then true to being Asian, I can’t stand long without having to look for the irresistible rice!
Culinary Adventure
Dinner at El Paso Restaurant, Santa Barbara
But, one of the most important messages that came out from the congress is that we need to communicate. Having the best science is not enough. We may have the best designed MPA but if we do not have support from the public, we may not have the buy-in that we are looking for. We may also have all the right conservation policies and laws in place, supported with strong science but we still need to make all these matters. This emphasised the need to communicate, for various reasons – to raise awareness, advocate, build support and compliance, and many more. In modern days, communications is made easy with modern technologies. The internet came to mind.
This finally brings me to my last sharing of the trip. A particular presentation on “The Role of Modern Communication Technology in Shark Conservation” has caught my attention and interest. The presentation by David Shiffman, the online outreach coordinator for the American Elasmobranch Society, highlight the potential of Facebook as a powerful tool for communication – 500 million users worldwide, available in 70 languages in 191 countries, with 30 billion stories, links, blog posts shared each month. In synthesis, we have blogger and YouTube as examples of technology to help us create our message (content creator) and we have the social media such as the facebook and twitter as a media for message dissemination (content distribution). Woila, we should be able to reach a multitude of people – including the young people.
But of course there are those who are still not into these modern technologies– here we rely on old fashion way of communication. But for now, I am going to try and embrace these new technologies by blogging and FBing away.
IMCC – International Marine Conservation Congress
NCEAS - National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara
By: Angela Lim, SSME Senior Communications Officer On Saturday 30 January 2010 , I was fortunate to join the Kudat PCA team to Pulau Tigabu, within the proposed Tun Mustapha Park ( TMP ). Besides being a weekend, the trip took a bit of sacrifice as it involved waking up at 5am ! The early departure on the Mameng (WWF’s 10m boat) was so that we could catch the tide and avoid bad waves. By 7:30am , we sped away from Kudat marina and were rewarded by a spectacular sunrise and a good calm sea. With us on the trip were Encik Fazrullah Abdul Razak, Marine Park Manager of Sabah Parks, Encik Jimli Perijin, Wildlife Enforcement Officer of Sabah Wildlife Department, and Encik Amillson Baragus, a consultant for WWF’s alternative livelihood assessment study. Encik Fazrullah wanted to promote the establishment of the proposed TMP , while Encik Jimli aimed to introduce Sabah Wildlife Department’s Honorary Wildife Warden (HWW) role and recruit participants for the HWW training coming up in March. A
Posted by: Ishahm Few days ago, when I just got back from a long journey, some friends told me there was a crocodile attack at Balambangan Island. I was not so sure about this news and as always I will be sceptical about the croc stories especially when it comes to Kudat area. I’ve heard stories about crocodile killed man out in the sea and far from the crocodile's ‘wandering area’, but there are no evidence to make my self to believe that croc attack really does happen here, I even asked a police friend few months ago, and he said ‘mana ada kes buaya’. Anyway, the latest incident which happened just last week makes me now believe that those previous attack by crocs were true! Croc near Kuak Simpul Balambangan Island, Kudat (Photo: Lee Yoke Lee) _______________________________ Croc kills Filipino off Balambangan Published on: Saturday, July 25, 2009 Croc skeleton at Uncle Jimmy's place in Balambangan http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=66588
According to Complex - an online media platform for youth culture; "The 50 Most Iconic Brand Logos of All Time" , ranked Google at No. 10 while WWF is not too far behind, at No. 24. For WWF, the iconic reminds us of the importance of preventing the degradation of the biodiversity where human lives in harmony with Nature. On the other hand, the logo is, needless to say, a globally-known mission to a world of universally accessible and useful information. In this boundary-less century, everything seems to be possible. WWF-Malaysia holds the value - 'together possible' - which is shown in the efforts from Google and WWF-Malaysia's collaboration in putting Tun Mustapha Park (TMP) on Google Street View Many thanks to Mr Nhazlisham Hamdan from Google Inc., for providing training and assistance to the team. Travelling from Kota Kinabalu to Tun Mustapha Park (TMP) took approximately three hours. The mission was monitored by team
Culinary Adventure 
.JPG)
Are you sitting across from Dr Liz Selig?
ReplyDeleteYup, that was her, although I didn't know I was in the presence of a dr :-)
ReplyDelete