Surveyors Urged To Leverage On Innovation

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 -- Local surveyors should consider and appreciate the vast potentials of leveraging on innovation as a strategy to continuously boost or nurture the environmental and resource sustainability agenda in the country.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas, said the involvement of the surveyors, whose professional practices spanned across various disciplines, would constitute a significant contribution to a sustainable construction.
"Sustainable construction can be deemed as a dynamic of developers of new solutions, industry suppliers and other relevant parties towards achieving sustainable development, taking into consideration environmental, socio-economic and cultural issue.
"It also embraces a number of aspects such as design and management of buildings and constructed assets, choice of materials, building performance and interaction with urban ad economic development and management," he said in his opening speech of the 11th South East Asian Survey Congress and 13th International Surveyors' Congress here today.
He hoped that in years to come, the surveying communities, particularly in all the Asean countries, would achieve significant milestones in smart and effective partnerships.
"It will create the right framework conditions for innovation and spearhead the wave of continuous innovation to meet the challenges of an evolving surveying profession in relation to the need of managing sustainability," he added.
-- BERNAMA

Draft law on anti-biopiracy may be tabled in Parliament by year-end

LUBOK ANTU: A draft legislation on access to biological resources and benefit sharing aimed at tackling biopiracy is expected to be tabled in Parliament by the end of the year, says Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas.

Taking cues from the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing of genetic resources, it aimed to prevent Malaysia’s biological resources from being taken out and exploited without permission, leaving the country empty-handed, he said.

So far, only Sarawak and Sabah governments have put in place legal provisions requiring prior approval to be obtained before their biological resources could be taken out.

Uggah told reporters this after opening the RM3mil Centre of Excellence for Orang Utan Conservation in Batang Ai National Park, Nanga Delok.

Completed in December 2010, it is a research centre for orang utan management and conservation covering the national park and the Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary.

Uggah said there were an estimated 1,984 orang utan in the 200,000ha area located in the ‘Heart of Borneo’.

The centre is eyeing enhanced transboundary cooperation with Indonesia’s Betung-Kerihun National Park, which is the world’s largest natural habitat for orang utan.

Uggah also said that he was happy that an expedition involving 150 local scientists and international experts organised by the state Forestry Department, Science Academy of Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (USM) had yielded positive outcome.

He said their research could bring advancements in fields such as horticulture, herbal medicine, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

The minister also acknowledged the participation of Sekolah Kebangsaan Nanga Delok and the local community in the global Green Wave 2011 programme involving the planting of one billion trees to raise the level of awareness on the importance of biodiversity, especially at the grassroots -Bernama

Biodiversiti Tioman : Tingkat Taraf Sosio Ekonomi Masyarakat Setempat

Kekayaan sumber biodiversiti marin di Pulau Tioman wajar dimanfaatkan untuk kesejahteraan hidup komuniti setempat. Saya menyokong kerjasama antara Jabatan Taman Laut Malaysia dengan United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) dan badan bukan kerajaan seperti Reef Check Malaysia dalam penambahbaikan pengurusan taman-taman laut dan memperkenalkan amalan rekreasi terbaik seperti penyediaan garis panduan aktiviti snorkelling. Melalui usaha ini, pelbagai pihak terutamanya komuniti tempatan dilibatkan secara aktif dalam pengurusan taman laut dan program-program sara hidup alternatif bagi meningkatkan taraf sosio ekonomi komuniti tempatan.

Di Taman Laut Pulau Tioman terdapat lebih kurang 221 spesies batu karang, 233 spesies ikan karang dan 61 spesies hidupan marin lain telah direkodkan. Kepelbagaian terumbu karang dan hidupan marin ini mampu menyumbang kepada penjanaan ekonomi negara dan sumber pendapatan kepada komuniti tempatan.

Sesungguhnya usaha memulihara sumber asli dan alam sekitar sentiasa diberi keutamaan oleh Kerajaan. Menyedari kepentingan untuk memelihara biodiversiti marin ini, Jabatan Taman Laut Malaysia telah ditubuhkan pada 16 Julai 2007 di bawah seliaan Kementerian Sumber Asli dan Alam Sekitar. Jabatan ini bertanggungjawab mengurus dan mentadbir 42 perairan taman-taman laut bagi melindungi serta mengekalkan biodiversiti yang disokong olehnya.

Biodiversiti marin perlu dimanfaatkan sepenuhnya agar boleh menyumbang kepada ekonomi negara khususnya dalam sektor ekopelancongan yang dianggarkan sebanyak RM600 – RM 800 juta setahun. Dianggarkan seramai 500,000 pelancong mengunjungi taman-taman laut pada setiap tahun, di Pulau Tioman sahaja, seramai 200,000 orang pelancong dari dalam dan luar negara berkunjung ke pulau ini setiap tahun.

Kehadiran pelancong-pelancong ini akan menambah pendapatan dan menyediakan peluang pekerjaan kepada penduduk-penduduk pulau ini. Kerajaan telah mengenalpasti Pulau Tioman sebagai salah satu tapak yang akan dipromosikan sebagai destinasi ekopelancongan di bawah inisiatif Malaysia Mega Biodiversiti Hub di Malaysia.

Melalui usaha menyeluruh untuk meningkatkan ekopelancongan di Pulau Tioman, penduduk tempatan berpeluang untuk terlibat dengan lebih aktif dalam aktiviti yang berasaskan ekopelancongan seperti nature guide, snorkelling dan dive guides serta menyediakan kemudahan penginapan dan sebagainya.

Semoga, penduduk tempatan dapat menikmati peluang ekonomi yang lebih baik di samping meningkatkan tahap sosio-ekonomi di pulau ini. Selain itu, keupayaan sumber manusia dan kelengkapan dipertingkat bagi tujuan memulihara, mengurus dan mengawalselia aktiviti-aktiviti di kawasan taman laut agar aktiviti-aktiviti tersebut tidak memberikan kesan negatif kepada hidupan marin.