Protect Coral Reefs in Malaysia

Cigarette butt is one of the most collected item on the world’s beaches, with a total of more than 60 million collected over 32 years. Cigarette butts are small and tend to go unnoticed but they are hiding almost everywhere. They are made of cellulose acetate, a man-made plastic material, and contain hundreds of toxic chemicals. While cigarette filters, or the plastic part of butts, can take up to 10 years to completely degrade, the chemicals they release can remain in the environment for many more years beyond the life of the cigarette butt itself. These tiny but toxic butts also cause significant harm to marine life. It is not uncommon for field researchers to find cigarette butts inside of dead sea birds, sea turtles, fish and dolphins.

In a measure to reduce cigarette butt pollution, a total of 25 cigarette butt bins were placed around Tioman Island and 15 bins around Mantanani Island. In each village, 3 to 6 bins were installed at places that are highly frequented by people. We hope these bins are fully utilised by the public and Tioman and Mantanani islands are free from cigarette butt pollution.

Homestay is a popular form of hospitality and lodging whereby visitors share a residence with a local of the place to which they are travelling for an authentic holiday experience. There are around 20 homestays on Mantanani Island. Unfortunately, these homestays are not popular among tourists who visited the island due to lack of marketing.

In an effort to help the locals to create a robust homestay market so that they can compete with chalets or resorts on the island, recently, Reef Check Malaysia organised Homestay Improvement Programme for homestay operators on the island. The programme had more than 20 participants and the trainings were given by certified trainers from Homestays and Kampungstay Association, Fire Department, Marine Research Foundation, Sabah Homestays as well as Reef Check Malaysia.

Some of trainings given to the participants are homestay management, package development, safety and emergency, biodiversity conservation, cultural awareness, bookkeeping and accountant, and others. It is hope with these training, the locals can diversify and improve the services that they provide, effectively market their package and service, able to manage their operation well, and thus giving them the competitive edge.