Tan Cheng Li The Star 17 Jan 12;
DRIVEN by a common vision to inspire people to do good, The Star has teamed up with Ecoteer to encourage villagers, readers and tourists to help protect the marine environment of Pulau Perhentian in Terengganu.
Under the year-long “Treasured Island” collaboration, financial contribution from The Star Foundation will support Ecoteer projects on the island, which are aimed at improving the livelihood of villagers and raising awareness on environmental protection of turtles and coral reefs.
A non-profit group set up in 2005, Ecoteer relies on paying volunteers, or what is termed “voluntourism”, to achieve its objective of promoting “Conservation Through Education”.
At Pulau Perhentian, Ecoteer volunteers have taught English to schoolchildren, helped run the school nature club and conducted environmental awareness activities.
With funding from The Star Foundation – the charity arm of The Star Media Group that raises, receives and administers funds for charity, social and research purposes – these activities will continue this year, together with other programmes on recycling, composting waste and organic farming.
The Ecoteer effort at Perhentian drew support from the Foundation as protecting the environment is one of the causes championed by the group, according to Star Publications (M) Bhd group managing director/CEO Ho Kay Tat.
“Voluntourism is something new and we thought it was an interesting idea. People pay to participate in the conservation project. Instead of just lying on the beach or snorkelling at Perhentian, they spend time teaching villagers about the environment, and help to protect turtles and coral reefs.
“Ecoteer volunteers are also working with the school on education, and helping the locals find other sources of income. If you can help them have a new skill, they don’t have to do things which might not be good for the environment. It’s a pioneering project, that’s why we see it as a project worth supporting,” says Ho.
Employees and readers of The Star will also get a chance to volunteer their time at Perhentian as there will be sponsored trips to the island.
“This collaboration goes beyond just giving out money and providing editorial coverage. It gives an opportunity for our staff and readers to participate actively in the conservation and community efforts on the island. They will spend three to four days there and experience first-hand what is taking place there,” says Ho.
He adds that if more people were interested in voluntourism and gave it time, the Ecoteer project can be sustained and this will benefit the villagers.
“The Ecoteer effort is not going to solve the world’s environmental problems but at least an effort is being made. And it’s clearly a hands-on, on-the-ground effort. Even if the impact is in a small area, at least it’s real impact,” he adds.
Ecoteer founder Daniel Quilter says the partnership with The Star has enabled the non-profit set-up to continue with its effort to promote responsible tourism, environmental awareness and community service.
“Without this collaboration, Ecoteer will not be able to fund and sustain the project beyond 2011 as voluntourism is not a popular practice in Malaysia. The activities so far have been solely funded on profits brought in by voluntourism and to date, a huge number of volunteers are from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, where voluntourism is embraced with great enthusiasm and support.”
He says the trips to the island will enable readers and employees of The Star to learn more about the marine environment and efforts to protect it and hopefully, inspire them to reduce their impact on not only the Perhentian islands but wherever they might travel to.
Vacation with a difference
Michael Cheang The Star 17 Jan 12;
Ecoteer.com links vacationers with volunteer projects.
IT all started with a gibbon. Daniel Quilter had spent almost six months doing volunteer work at an eco-lodge in the village of Sukau in Kinabatangan, Sabah, and even after months of listening to the sound of gibbons gibbering around the jungle, he had not seen one. When he finally did, it changed his life.
“This gibbon was literally just lying there on the boardwalk, and jumped off into the trees as I approached. It was such an amazing sight, and at that moment, I decided that I had to do something so that more people can get the same experience that I just had,” Quilter recalled.
That “experience” Quilter is referring to is his “voluntourism” stint in 2005 in Sukau, where he did volunteer work in exchange for nothing more than free food and lodging. “I couldn’t afford really expensive holidays, and I just wanted to do something where I could also get some work experience, so I basically just e-mailed the eco-lodge offering my services in exchange for food and lodging,” he said.
After his gibbon-inspired epiphany, Quilter returned to his native England and started Ecoteer.com, a voluntourism website that serves as a platform to connect volunteer projects worldwide with individuals who want a holiday where they can make a difference. These projects range from eco-tourism, humanitarian, conservation and teaching projects all over the world.
While the concept of voluntourism – combining your holiday with volunteer work – might seem alien to most Malaysians (“What? You want me to pay money to go and do volunteer work instead of lying on a beach or going shopping?”), it is a fast growing segment of tourism in Europe, according to Quilter, who has a background in environmental science and a master’s degree in ocean policy and law.
“Voluntourism is growing into a more mainstream form of tourism now. More and more people are going for ethical holidays instead of the usual ‘sun, sangria and sex’ type of holidays. They want an experience that actually benefits them,” he said, adding that many “voluntourists” do not want to just sight-see – they also want to interact with the locals and learn about their culture.
The whole idea behind Ecoteer is to form a network where people could go to search for holidays where they could do volunteer work. Quilter, who has based his operations in Malaysia, likens it to a dating service that matches travellers with smaller, lesser-known projects. These projects will then be able to get the manpower they need.
“Many of these small projects don’t have the resources or know-how to get good coverage on the Internet. Ecoteer acts as a platform for these lesser-known projects to get volunteers,” he explained. “Many agents (that provide a similar service) take huge commissions, so a lot of smaller projects can’t afford it. However, Ecoteer.com is not an agent, so we don’t earn any commission from the projects. The travellers will contact the project operators directly, and any money they pay goes 100% to the project.”
Now, most of the projects on Ecoteer.com tend to be long-term volunteer projects that typically last for a month or more. In 2010, Quilter started Ecoteer Responsible Travel (ERT), which runs several community and conservation projects in Malaysia and Sri Lanka where travellers can come in for shorter periods, even for a night, and still get a good experience.
One of the first projects under ERT is the Perhentian Islands Community and Conservation Volunteer Project which aims to increase environmental and cultural awareness amongst the villagers and tourists of Kampong Pasir Hantu at Pulau Perhentian in Terengganu, and is the main reason Quilter set up ERT in the first place.
“In 2008, I got a job working for a big voluntourism company that did turtle conservation in Perhentian as well as orang utan conservation in Sarawak. I was the manager for the turtle project (known as the Bubbles Dive, Turtle and Coral project), working with Bubbles Dive Resort. Our job was to provide some sort of deterrent for the poachers. We got volunteers to stay up all night with lots of coffee to guard the beach,” he explained.
Unfortunately, in 2009, the recession hit Britain, and the company stopped the turtle conservation project and concentrated on the orang utan one instead. Quilter, however, decided to run the turtle project independently and find volunteers through Ecoteer.com instead.
“However, I realised after a while that while Ecoteer.com could provide volunteers, they just weren’t in the right niche. So I decided to start ERT in 2010, beginning with Perhentian and expanding to other projects later.”
According to Quilter, the Perhentian village community project was a natural progression from the turtle project. “We still support the turtle project by providing volunteers, but our work in the village is our main project now,” he explained.
“Under ERT, volunteers can come for one or two days up to a few weeks, and help out in the various projects we have going on there.”
So far, a total of 312 volunteers have participated in the Perhentian project.
One of the main objectives of the project is to help improve the villagers’ quality of life and increase their income generating opportunities.
“At the moment, most of the villagers work as boatmen or maids. The boatmen in particular make an alright living, but only during the tourist season. During the monsoon season at the end of the year, they have nothing to do. So what they have now is six to seven months of work, and then nothing for the rest of the year,” said Quilter.
“When we first went into the village and spoke to the village head, we only planned to go into the schools to teach the kids. Then in 2011, the village head asked us to expand on what we were doing to the entire village, and set up the Ecoteer House.”
Project epicentre
The Ecoteer House not only serve as the project headquarters and a place to house the volunteers (it can accommodate up to four people at one time), but also as a community youth centre, hosting weekly environmental clubs for school children on the island. It is also where Ecoteer conducts its “experiments” – various pilot projects that can be expanded in the future to help the village as a whole.
“Ecoteer House serves as a centre to kick-start many of our little projects. We do many of the projects first to prove to the villagers that they can make money out of it. If it is successful, it will convince them to try it out as well,” said Quilter.
One initiative encourages composting and recycling on the island. For this, ReefCheck Malaysia will donate a BioMate compost machine which can process organic waste collected from the villagers’ homes into compost. Each household will get two bins to collect the food waste.
Quilter said now, it is difficult to farm on the island because the soil is salty and sandy. So the compost will come in handy. The plan is to get the villagers to grow vegetables, herbs and fruits which they can use themselves or sell to the resorts.
“We have a space in the village to build a community herb garden and nursery, where we’ll be building spiral gardens to grow herbs, particularly Western herbs such as oregano and so on, and also fruits, vegetables and other plants that can help sustain the village or boost its income.”
Ecoteer is also helping to make the village more appealing to tourists by improving on the tourism services offered by the villagers and making it more attractive in general.
“We had a volunteer last year whose job was to come up with a Western food menu using local ingredients which the villagers could cook for tourists,” said Quilter. “Many tourists still want to have their pasta or chicken chops, so by teaching the villagers how to cook these meals, we hope to create a reason for tourists to go into the village.”
Tourists who choose to only stay with the project for one or two days will usually be put up in one of the villagers’ home, where they can experience first-hand how the locals live by eating the same food and interacting with the families.
“If you’re only here for one or two nights, you may not be giving back much, but at least you will still get a proper cultural experience, and the money goes into the village,” said Quilter.
Perhentian is not the only project that ERT is currently involved in. It is also working with the Borneo Child Aid Society in Sukau, Sabah, helping to provide basic education for children in the oil palm estates there. There are also two other projects involving elephants and turtles conservation in Sri Lanka, while another environment-related project will start in Ipoh later this year.
