COASTAL
COMMUNITIES
EDUCATION - WELLBEING - MARINE CONSERVATION
Tengah Island
Conservation
We are committed to the education and wellbeing of the coastal communities we encounter through the projects we execute with our brand partners and strategic non for profit partners. We have a particular focus on supporting programmes that encourage education, training and employment, which will deliver sustainable activities such as fishing, healthy sports and leisure and also contribute to long term marine conservation projects.
“…while nature has considerable resilience, there is a limit to how far that resilience can be stretched. No one knows how close to the limit we are getting. The darker it gets, the faster we’re driving.”
– Mark Carwardine, Last Chance to See
The project
We work with Tengah Island Conservation (TIC); a non-profit biodiversity management initiative located on Pulau Tengah, an island within the Johor Marine Park, Malaysia. TIC was formed initially in collaboration with Batu Batu, an eco resort located within the park. At the time, Batu Batu didn’t have a conservation team but noticed that sea turtles were being poached of their eggs. In order to protect the population of turtles, some of which are critically endangered, TIC was born. Their conservation efforts include daily boat patrols of neighbouring islands in order to try and encounter nests before they are either poached or predated. The eggs are brought back to the TIC hatchery where they are hatched and released almost immediately back into the wild.
Community
Outreach
Over the years, TIC also realised that there was a need to do more outreach work with the local community and schools. They decided to work on creating educational programmes for schools in collaboration with other NGOs and the local council, encompassing modules on marine mammals and turtle conservation. The programme covers five different schools on the mainland and has been delivered to over 500 students. At present, TIC Is working on creating textbooks and mascots for the programme with a view to expanding the programme to the island schools. We support TIC’s conservation efforts through sponsorship of their staff uniforms as well as offering discounts on our products, which they can resell in their gift shop to raise additional funds to support their conservation and educational efforts.