Continuous efforts to conserve threatened coral reefs: Liew
Published on: Friday, July 26, 2024
By: Noor Zafira Zayn
Liew said efforts to ensure that pressure on marine ecosystems can be controlled are focused and implemented by limiting activities and the entry of tourists coming to the area each day.
Kota Kinabalu: Continuous measures will be taken to enhance conservation efforts for coral reefs that are threatened by climate change and human activities.State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said climate change has led to an increase in sea temperatures.
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“It has caused coral bleaching, reduced biodiversity and affected the ecotourism appeal.
“Excessive tourism activities also put pressure on the natural ecosystem, including damage to coral reefs due to uncontrolled snorkelling and diving,” she said.
She said this in her speech delivered by Sabah Parks Board of Trustees Chairman, Peter Lintar, at the 50th Golden Jubilee Celebration of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park or Manukan Island, here, Thursday.
Liew said efforts to ensure that pressure on marine ecosystems can be controlled are focused and implemented by limiting activities and the entry of tourists coming to the area each day.
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“To help our coral reefs recover and not experience bleaching faster, we limit activities, including closing parts of the island where we do repair and restoration work,” she added.
Christina also said Tunku Abdul Rahman Park or Manukan Island has 32 dive sites and called on relevant agencies to expand their efforts and work related to the preservation and conservation of coral reefs threatened by current climate change.
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“A step that all relevant agencies can take is to conduct rehabilitation programmes for our bleached coral reefs, and this effort must be carried out consistently,” she added.
Meanwhile, coral reef researcher Elvin Micheal presented his research findings regarding monitoring carried out around the islands, particularly involving coral reefs and marine ecosystems.
“We first detected coral bleaching about 10 years ago, and the same thing is happening with Semporna and this island.
“The incidents we identified through our studies and monitoring across 32 dive areas on the island is that this coral bleaching problem occurs due to the biggest main factor, which is the increase in sea surface temperature,” he said.
Also present at the event was Sabah Parks Director Dr Maklarin Lakim.
Maklarin said Sabah Parks welcomes researchers from within and outside to conduct studies and cooperate in efforts to save coral reefs and marine ecosystems on all Sabah Park islands.
“We welcome local and foreign researchers, we are open, and all researchers can come with us here to jointly conduct necessary studies in an effort to save our marine ecosystem.
“Like now, many of our researchers from various institutions come to conduct research here, and we also have a team of researchers who are doing full-time research work,” he said.
For the record, Sabah Parks limits the entry of tourists and tourism operators to 500 people at any one time for the purpose of protecting the habitat and marine and island ecosystems.
This is also among Sabah Parks initiative to ensure the condition and safety of visitors on Sabah Park islands are guaranteed and under control.
“Our purpose is to avoid pressure on coral reefs and marine life, apart from visitor safety factors because our officers such as coast guards have limitations in numbers to control.
“We also want to reduce the risk or rate of accidents occurring while visitors are doing water activities in Sabah Parks’ islands,” he added.
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