On 30 October 2015, a group of 50 Limkokwing international student volunteers from 18 countries under the Limkokwing Heal the World Initiative went on a 3-day reforestation expedition into the majestic rainforest of Taman Negara in the heart of the state of Pahang.
The reforestation expedition was done in collaboration with the Sultan Ahmad Shah Environment Trust (SASET).
SASET was formed six years ago by His Royal Highness Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang as its main benefactor with Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom of Pahang serving as the Chairman whilst His Royal Highness Tengku Arif Temenggong acts as CEO of the trust.
Limkokwing University’s has been a proud partner of many SASET’s philanthropic programmes. Each year, SASET works with a variety of public and private universities across the country to practice reforestation through direct seeding and planting of trees in the rainforests of Malaysia. Deforestation is thought to have played a role in Malaysia’s worst flooding over the decades. Deforestation especially affects the socio-economic lives of the ‘orang asli’, Malaysia’s indigenous population. SASET hopes the collective impact of its reforestation programmes would help alleviate such problems by supporting biodiversity in Malaysia’s delicate rainforests.
According to Mr Dev Firdaus, SASET’s EMP Manager, “awareness is a very important tool to prevent such deforestation, whether it is carried out by the youth, middle aged people or the elderly. There is no limit to environmental awareness.”
“We could have taken a different route in carrying out this programme and gotten contractors to work over 2 weeks planting the trees for us. But the point was to get students involved, getting Limkokwing students involved and that in itself, the pure act of planting trees was environmental awareness. That is how we would like to spread it out at SASET,” he added.
During this expedition, Limkokwing international student ambassadors and volunteers planted 3,500 trees in 3 days over 92 hectares of land. Out of the total number of tree planted, a thousand trees were donated by the students through creative fundraising efforts carried out on campus to assist in alleviating the negative environmental and social change caused by deforestation in Taman Negara.
To raise funds, the international student ambassadors made an informative video with fun facts and tips to raise awareness on how to make a positive difference within the environment. They ran a charitable bazaar for weeks at which they baked a number of different dishes and made international delicacies, prepared fresh juice, hand henna designs, souvenirs, books, clothes and jewellery from their countries to sell at the bazaar. Two Heal the World fundraising concerts were held by students on campus during the semester, using their creative skills as students from diverse backgrounds to fuel and inspire action for environmental awareness.
Aisath Maisha, an Architecture student and Heal the World Project Coordinator from Maldives said that “working with SASET has helped connect us to the benefits of fostering environmental stewardship. You are never too young or too old to make a significant impact, and we are happy that we joined this programme”.