Tag: Terengganu

FINAL UPDATE: Rimba is closing down

And that’s a wrap!

Rimba is now taking steps to close down. It’s been a wild, crazy, wonderful and fulfilling roller coaster ride over the past decade (and more!) of our existence – but, as we’re a small local nonprofit with very limited resources and capacity, the frequent situations of financial insecurity, insufficient funds, plus the lack of long-term and sustainable financial support to pay ourselves a living wage make it impossible for us to continue operating under this model. So starting January 2022 we will no longer function as a fully operating entity.

We’re taking this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all our supporters and partners who have made our work and successes possible. We really couldn’t have made all that progress and impact without you, especially in these very difficult times we’ve all been going through!

The Harimau Selamanya rangers in the field with project partners and volunteers

So THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts, and please take hope from the knowledge that you have helped us to make conservation action a reality, creating some really lasting positive changes in the Malaysian conservation scene.

Members of Team Cerberus and PERHILITAN after completion of training

However, this doesn’t mean that all our work ends with us. Some of our projects are spinning off to continue pursuing what they started, and some have already done so. If you’re interested in following the continued progress of the work started by Rimba, here’s how you can stay updated:

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Video Update 9: In celebration of Global Tiger Day

The survival of the Malayan Tiger hangs in the balance. Protecting them from direct poaching is a top priority, and requires intensive, regular patrolling in the deep forest. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted, and requires a combination of passion, skills, dedication, and fortitude.

To celebrate Global Tiger Day this 29 July 2020, we’d like you to meet some of our patrollers working on the frontlines of tiger conservation in our Harimau Selamanya project. Set up in 2014, our project has been working with rangers from government agencies such as PERHILITAN, Terengganu State Parks, and the Royal Malaysian Police to reduce poaching, and protect the forest habitats of big cats such as the Malayan tiger in Kenyir, Terengganu.

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Press Release: New State Park to Strengthen Biodiversity Protection in Malaysia

KUALA TERENGGANU, 15 August – Malaysia’s Terengganu state government announced today that it has designated 10,386 hectares of land formerly slated for logging as a new protected area for conservation. This new state park in the Kenyir region of Terengganu is phase one of a much larger conservation project that lies within a globally important Tiger Conservation Landscape and critical wildlife corridor.

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The creation of this protected area and its ongoing management is a collaborative effort involving the Terengganu state government, and local nonprofit organization Rimba, in partnership with Rainforest Trust and Panthera/Woodland Park Zoo.

“This new protected area not only brings more key wildlife habitat under protection, but also protects vital forested watersheds that provide important ecosystem services to the people of Terengganu,” said Dr. Sheema Abdul Aziz, President of Rimba.

Estimated at more than 130 million years old, the dipterocarp forest in the Lawit-Cenana State Park is now protected from logging and secured from further development.

“The importance of this area simply cannot be underestimated,” said Rainforest Trust Chief Executive Officer Dr. Paul Salaman. “The creation of the new park is a rare and unparalleled opportunity to protect a spectacular and imperiled tropical forest harboring what is certainly one of the planet’s most awe-inspiring predators – the Critically Endangered Malayan Tiger.”

The forests of the new park contain some of the highest biodiversity in Asia and are home to 18 highly threatened mammal species, including the Asian Elephant, Sunda Pangolin, Asian Tapir, Dhole and White-handed Gibbon. Six of Malaysia’s eight wild cat species prowl these forests, including the Malayan Tiger.

“These apex predators face tremendous pressure from poaching, fuelled by the illegal trade in their body parts for traditional Chinese medicine,” said Dr. Gopalasamy Reuben Clements, lead investigator of Rimba’s Harimau Selamanya project and Associate Professor at Sunway University. Continue reading →

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