Big Blue Day to protect biodiversity

KOTA KINABALU – Blu Hope, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Sabah, will be organising a “Big Blue Day” webinar tomorrow aimed at creating awareness on marine conservation.

With a strong supporting cast of well-known Malaysian artists and groups – including Atmosfera, Mia Valencia, Amir Yussof, Azimy Wan Ahmad, Mei Lin Hii and Giulia Cristaldi – the webinar aims to educate Malaysians and the global public on the importance of protecting marine biodiversity in Sabah and the wider Coral Triangle.

The Coral Triangle is a triangular area off the tropical waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, as well as Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands that consists of at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion.

Viewers will get a chance to listen to Sabah’s success stories, both locally and globally, told by “shark stewards” of protecting sharks and coral reefs, as well as Blu Hope’s upcoming Fish-Bomb-Free Sabah, “Sabah Plastic Neutral” and “Together We Eradicate Trash” programmes. On top of that, viewers will be introduced to the NGO’s new application for rewild carbon and plastic, dubbed “The Equaliser”, which focuses on value creation for localised circular economies aimed at protecting biodiversity and local communities affected by such waste.

Blu Hope will also be celebrating the launch of its new Sabah Schools Water/Plastic Solution partnership with French water-filter manufacturer FontoDeVivo. British High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay will be moderating the session alongside local celebrity Maya Karin – who recently narrated Plastic Oceans UK’s three-part series with Sir David Attenborough – as well as Blu Hope founders Simon Christopher and Monica Chin.

“With Unesco’s Ocean Decade starting next year, Blu Hope Sabah’s Big Blue Day aims to focus everyone’s minds on the unique opportunity for Sabahans to embrace the opportunity and lead the way across Malaysia and the wider Coral Triangle alongside other last frontiers of biodiversity, like Timor-Leste,” Christopher said.

“With strong support from the legendary Sir David Attenborough and Mission Blue founder Dr Sylvia Earle, now is the time for the true value of Sabah’s natural resources to shine, and the world to recognise and support Sabah.

“To truly embrace the world’s environmental woes, it will take a spiritual and cultural shift, and hopefully Sabah will be one of the first locations in the world to make this change.”

Christopher said this can be achieved by creating new localised circular economies from plastic collection with the “Together We Eradicate Trash” programme, and providing alternative livelihoods for coastal communities through the Fish-Bomb-Free Sabah programme.

“In the words of Sir David Attenborough, the next decade will define life on our planet for human beings, so the time is now for Sabah to lead the way with ‘Sabah Plastic Neutral’,” said Chin, who is also Blu Hope community director.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Joniston Bangkuai said the state government is very happy to support campaigns, such as Blu Hope’s, which are designed to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment.

In a statement, he said based on the Roadmap Towards Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018- 2030 published by the then Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry, environmental problems related to plastic waste have become a major problem in the country, which is among the top ten countries with mismanaged plastic waste in the world.

“One of the studies conducted estimated that Malaysia had produced 0.94 million tons of mismanaged plastic wastes, of which 0.14 to 0.37 million tons may have been washed into the oceans.”

“Single-use plastic issue is one of the key challenges we face in Sabah. Although quantitative data is lacking on the use of single-use plastic in the state, this problem is apparent in many places. This issue could be attributed to the lack of public apathy. When the public lacks the concern in managing waste properly and solely depend on the government to solve it, the problem will remain.” – The Vibes, December 11, 2020