Sabah Parks, WWF-Malaysia acquire funds to carry out coral restoration works

 By Olivia Miwil - May 20, 2022 @ 1:08pm

Sabah Parks and WWF-Malaysia have acquired funds from the European Union (EU) to carry out coral restoration work off Tun Mustapha Park here. - NSTP/Olivia Miwil

KUDAT: Sabah Parks and WWF-Malaysia have acquired funds from the European Union (EU) to carry out coral restoration work off Tun Mustapha Park here.

Sabah Parks director Dr Maklarin Lakim said the funding would be used for the existing project to enrich the biodiversity of the marine parks here.

"Since the park was gazetted six years ago, we know the exact status and its health condition as well as its weakness, which is lacking in terms of biodiversity resources.

"There is a need for conservation through coral reef restoration. With such efforts, other fish and marine life would come and enrich the biological products within the park," he said after the sixth Tun Mustapha Park gazettement anniversary and grant agreement signing here yesterday.

The restoration programme at the park was taken up in Nove 2020 through discussions with WWF-Malaysia to apply for funding under the EU-funded Ocean Governance Project.

It is in line with the programmes that have been planned for a long time with WWF-Malaysia as a partner of Sabah Parks through a memorandum of understanding between the two parties that was signed on Sept 18, 2017.

The next series of discussions resulted in a proposed action plan which was then submitted to the Ocean Governance Project along with a funding application in Dec 2020.

In March this year, feedback was received that the programme's requst for funds amounting to RM1,036,777.50 had been approved by the Ocean Governance Project through WWF-Malaysia for restoration works at two locations namely Maliangin and Patanunan, within the Tun Mustapha Park.

According to the "Grant Agreement" with the implementing partner, WWF-Malaysia, the project period will take 20 months from May 1 this year to Dec 15, 2023 and the amount that will be channeled to Sabah Parks is RM460,630.

Maklarin said that the cost of planting corals was high as it also involved raw materials, transportation and manpower, among others.

"Some of the artificial reefs would cost RM17,000 each, or RM2,000. But as the distance (of transporting those reefs) increases, probably to a secluded area, the cost could go up to RM20,000.

"But we are confident that with the half a million ringgit fund, we could have a football field-sized artificial reef."

Earlier, he added that their enforcement also made sure ships in Bangi, Kampung Sibogo Laut and the latest off Inaruntung waters in Pitas were compounded for destroying corals.

In 2019, Sabah Parks placed 53 reef balls off Kalampunian waters off Simpang Mengayau after a ship crashed into a dive site.

Sabah Parks has also worked with WWF-Malaysia to install fish bombing detection devices at 10 locations and such collaboration saw a drop in blasting incidents.