Protect Coral Reefs in Malaysia

Recently we have duplicated Tioman Marine Conservation Group to Redang Island, and island north of Tioman Island and off the east coast of Terengganu. 12 local islanders from Redang Island were given the same training Tioman local islanders received and they now form the Redang Marine Conservation Group.

As of today, the group has removed many ghost nets, conducted coral reef health surveys and underwater clean-ups. More trainings will be given to equip them with sets of skills to carry out reef conservation and management activities. Also, more local islanders will be trained to expand the members of the group.

It is hoped that with the establishment of Redang Marine Conservation Group, it will create stewardship amongst the local islanders and more locals are interested to participate in managing their reefs.

The 5^th Asian Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (APCRS) was recently held at the National University of Singapore. Shahir represented Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) and Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) during the 5^th APCRS. He presented on the involvement of Tioman local islanders in co-management in the Tioman Island Marine Park.

Shahir is born and raised on Tioman Island. He is a certified diver and always wanted to get involved in diving works. He first joined us as volunteer and later become one of the early members of TMCG.

We are very proud of him! Having no marine education background, he is now part of RCM, his 6^th year, leads the TMCG members in conducting reef management activities and represents his community and RCM at international arena!