Protect Coral Reefs in Malaysia

Mabul Island, located in the district of Semporna, in Sabah, Malaysia, is renowned for its world-class diving sites. It is located not too far away from another famous diving site, Sipadan Island.

Earlier this year, a district-level campaign was launched, which inspired the local island community on Mabul to show remarkable effort to clean their island. The village head, Yusuf Jalal spearheaded this long-term effort, which includes three clean-up efforts to date.

In March, more than 1,000 islanders removed over 10,000 kilograms of debris in a comprehensive clean-up effort. In June, a second clean-up resulted in the removal of another 8,000 kilograms of waste, giving the island a much cleaner look. 

Just last month, the third phase of this initiative collected an additional 5,000 kilograms of rubbish, bringing the total rubbish collected since early this year more than 23,000 kilograms.

According to Yusuf, “This collaborative effort is by everyone in this village who aims to see a better and cleaner Mabul. We have reminded ourselves that our island has been labelled as "dirty", despite having world-level diving sites.” He highlighted collaboration with the district office and other government agencies, besides expressing gratitude to Reef Check Malaysia for our technical support.

“We hope that the government will consider establishing a waste management system for our island, which will greatly help us prevent more trash from ending up in the sea and polluting our beaches,” added Yusuf. He also mentioned that such regular clean-ups will require more resources, including costs for materials and transportation.

Adzmin Fatta, programme manager of Reef Check Malaysia, commended the villagers' dedication and the leadership of Yusuf. "I have witnessed great cooperation among the islanders, especially the village leadership. We will continue to work with the village committee and the islanders and provide our support whenever we can," he said.

Mubin Paraja, a villager and member of the Mabul Island Waste Management Committee, said this was the first-ever community-led effort showcasing everyone’s commitment to addressing waste management issues on the island.

Links:

• Over 20 tonnes of waste collected in Mabul Island clean-up
• Semporna islanders collect over 20,000kg trash in major cleanup
• Mabul folks join hands to conduct major clean-up

The Community Marine Conservation Group (CMCG) effort under Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) refers to a group of local residents, resort/chalet/boat operators, or NGOs who agree to implement conservation programmes.

Community Marine Conservation Groups (CMCG) has been one of the core programmes implemented by Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) with the communities where we are based. We now have 6 CMCGs working alongside us to protect our ocean!

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as Malaysia’s National Policy on Biological Policy and the 12^th Malaysian Plan all highlight the need for a community-based approach to the management and conservation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

The Reef Care programme was introduced by the Department of Fisheries Malaysia (DoF) in 2019. Reef Care is an arrangement whereby the local stakeholders living on the Marine Park islands are given limited responsibility for maintaining a defined area of coral reef, seagrass, and/or mangrove adjacent to the coastal area where the stakeholder is located. RCM then began forming the first CMCG, the Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) in 2019 and the success of this group has been the blueprint for the establishment of the other CMCGs.

Involvement of local communities and other stakeholders in marine ecosystem management and conservation is a way of mainstreaming environmental protection at community level. The objectives of the CMCG are to:

• Encourage local community participation in the care and conservation of marine ecosystems
• Strengthen cooperation between management agencies and the local communities which rely on marine resources for their livelihoods
• Improve the socio-economic circumstances of local communities

The CMCGs are encouraged to participate in conservation activities such as:

• Coral reef monitoring and rehabilitation
• Coral predator removal and management
• Coral bleaching monitoring
• Underwater clean-ups and ghost nets removal
• Mooring buoy management
• Communication, education and public awareness (CEPA) programs for all stakeholders
• Consultations with all stakeholders to engage them in conservation programs and highlight issues that communities face

CMCGs are encouraged to collaborate with one another to build a strong CMCG network that allows local stakeholder to work alongside protected area managers and play a meaningful role in the conservation of their marine resources.

RCM has successfully established 6 CMCGs to date and they are:

• Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG)
• Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG)
• Larapan Marine Conservation Group (LMCG)
• Selakan Marine Conservation Group (SMCG)
• Kulapuan Marine Conservation Group (KMCG)
• Pemimpin Iklim Mabul

Each of these local CMGCs have been working tirelessly, carrying out daily conservation activities and making amazing progress to contribute towards better marine resource management in their own islands. You can follow the journey of our CMCGs on Reef Check Malaysia's social media pages:

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