Over thirty students from across faculties planted 1,500 forest trees at the Sungai Ichat Permanent Reserved Forests (PRFs), Cameron Highlands, recently.
The Environmental Preservation and Restoration programme was organized by the Sultan Ahmad Shah Environmental Trust (SASET) in collaboration with the Pahang State Forestry Department (JPNP) and the Malaysia-Pahang Youth Council.
Besides Limkokwing students, members of the uniformed body associations — Puteri Islam, Pandu Puteri and Scouts — as well as students from schools around Cameron Highlands and local communities around 300 people were also present.
Volunteers have planted 1,500 trees consisting of four species of forest trees, namely Merawan Siput Jantan, Menglembu, Merbau and Damar Minyak.
Cameron Highlands is important for tourism and wildlife living in areas surrounding it. The 121-hectare Sungai Ichat PRFs was previously illegally explored and turned into a vegetable farm, causing pollution to local water catchments.
This is the first time SASET held such a programme at Cameron Highlands which was inspired by Tengku Arif Temenggong, Tengku Fahd Mua’adzam Shah and received full support from the local community to save this area from illegal farmers.
Fathmath Sadha Mohamed from Maldives said, the “Go Green With SASET” programme provided exposure on how to grow trees and to interact with the local community.
“The students were so excited and thanks to the Pahang State Forestry Department for providing the planting holes within a specified distance making planting easier for us.”
“I hope more programmes involving Limkokwing University students will be possible in the future,” she said.
Latifa Ashraf Hassan Mohamed Abdulhamid Nafie from Egypt said, there are many ways to make learning more interesting such as activities outside the classroom.
“For me, this kind of activity is fun. Besides having the opportunity to visit this area, I also had the opportunity to learn about various tree species and the environment,” she said.
Lucia Alejandra Martinez Vega from Mexico said that every developing country faces the same problem, where forests are illegally explored and ruined by the lack of discipline to care for the environment.
“With such programme, I hope this green area will remain in the future,” she said.
SASET also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pahang State Youth Council to establish an understanding of environmental preservation and rehabilitation.