Exciting Scouts of the World Award Project - Save our Shores

Save Our Shores Project is the first Scout of the World Voluntary Service in Malaysia and fully conducted by Rover Scouts from Penang State, Malaysia. This Save Our Shores Project collaboration with Penang Inshore Fishermen Welfare Association (PIFWA) and based at PIFWA Mangrove Small Education Centre located at Sungai Chenaam, Seberang Perai Selatan (South Province of Wellesley), Penang State. PIFWA are committed in protecting, conserving and maintaining coastal eco-system to ensure the well protected coastal eco-system benefiting fishermen’s fishery harvesting. In another hand, Penang are surrounded by sea, on year 2004 during the Indian Ocean Tsunami tragedy, many coastal which without mangrove forest badly hit by tsunami, only the area which have the mangrove forest act as natural barrier to stop the tsunami wave. Mangrove Forest consist valuable resources, it’s also the source of oxygen and the mangrove trees trunk can be use as coal and wood pile.

This project started on earlier of January 2015, ended before April 2015 and conducted in 7 full weekend with intervals. The activities planned to conduct on weekend is due to most of the team members are working weekday and the most significant reason is to enable the counter measurement on the effort where done weekly.

The project aimed to planting more mangrove trees to increase and strengthening the existing of mangrove forest, to cleaning out the rubbish which trapped inside mangrove forest, to assist PIFWA in collecting the data from the performed activities for their studies and analysis. Beside from hand-on work, this project also involving and brings in young scouts (Pengakap Muda & Pengakap Ramaja) to the mangrove forest in order to expose them to the importance of conserving the mangrove forest and experiencing trees planting in muddy mangrove forest.

Total 1200 mangrove trees had been planted through 2 major grand planting events and few small planting events. Both major grand planting events are support by Penang State Government and iM4U, also get fully coverage by local newspaper.

Others than that, an exhibition also perform together with PIFWA at Shopping Complex to attract and also to create public awareness to more people on the important of conserving Mangrove Forest.

In future, the current Save Our Shores team member will cooperate with PIFWA to promote such activities to public as well as private corporate to get their attention to continue support on mangrove forest conservation.

By Wong Kok Nian, The Scouts Association of Malaysia