Malaysia: State park plan for Setiu wetlands

New Straits Times 6 Jun 11;

KUALA TERENGGANU: A proposal has been made to turn the Setiu wetlands into a state park to preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable development.

"Efforts to conserve the wetland's environment require more support and funding by the state government and other government agencies to allow for better management of wetlands," said Setiu member of parliament Datuk Mohd Jidin Shafee.

Jidin said this after attending the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony between World Wide Fund for Nature- Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) on the sustainable management of the Setiu Wetlands at UMT's Mahyudin Hall here recently.


"I hope the Federal and state governments will provide bigger allocations for the conservation effort so that the authorities and the community can protect the area effectively."

He said the proposed state park would be made up of 1,918ha of mostly government land and 174 plots which were privately owned.

Present at the function were UMT Vice- Chancellor Professor Dr Aziz Deraman and WWF- Malaysia chairman Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Mohamad.


Dr Aziz said the MoU was the renewal of an agreement of cooperation of sustainable development between the university and the organisation signed four years ago.

"This second phase of our cooperation is aimed at ensuring the continuation of activities held previously.

"We are also looking forward to holding more activities with WWF-Malaysia and the community in Setiu in terms of education, research, documentation."


UMT would be expanding its research facility in the wetlands, he added.