KUALA LUMPUR – The community has a vital role in helping to restore and preserve the environment by pushing for better policies to address illegal logging and pollution, besides ensuring environmental protection is made an important part of education for the younger generation.
The president of Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam (PEKA Malaysia) Puan Sri Shariffa Sabrina Syed Akil in her special message in conjunction with World Environment Day (WED) celebrated today, said in order to achieve this, the public should choose elected representatives with sound understanding and good intention of protecting the natural environment and green agendas.
“In short, there must be a concerted effort to stop all or any damaging practices such as unethical logging, land reclamation and mining and start to replant, recover and restore our natural environment immediately,” she told Bernama through WhatsApp.
WED is celebrated annually on June 5 and is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
Shariffa Sabrina, who has been vocal about illegal logging and deforestation in the country for years, said education is the key in restoring the environment and ecosystems in the country and that it is changing the way people think about protecting, preserving and rehabilitating the natural environment.
“Education is also leading the way in scientific studies to improve restoration of what has been damaged, pushing for better drafting of environmental related laws and creating international treaties and cooperation.
“But the destruction is continuing faster than it can be restored naturally or through scientific advancements and funding,” stressed the environmentalist.
Shariffa Sabrina, who is on an extremely challenging mission to save Mother Nature said the public should realise that their materialistic lifestyle or demands depletes resources, whereby every single thing they use and wear, starting from fresh air, water, medicine, home and cars, comes from the natural environment.
“Indeed, the base material of all man-made articles come from the natural environment. Therefore, buy what you need and not what you want. Do not waste and make recycling a habit and influence others,” she added.
Asked what is damaging the environment or ecosystems, both in terms of natural and man-made activities, she said droughts, flood, landslides, forest fires, hurricanes and cyclones, among others, have now changed in size, volume, frequency and intensity, which she attributed to the uncontrolled human activities for generations.
The environmental activist also said the role played by PEKA in exposing human activities that went against the efforts to preserve and protect nature has landed the non-governmental organisation into trouble with the concerned authorities numerous times.
“But it had just made us more resolute in continuing to expose the wrongdoings done to the nature that we have been trusted to protect and handover to the next generation.
“We have also been meeting government agencies, ministers to stop these destructions and bringing awareness of nature’s plight to the public to educate them on the importance of preserving nature for the future,” she added.
She stressed that damages to the environment due to human greed and lack of understanding committed over many decades ago are still visible now and its chain reaction is interrupting other connected ecosystems even until today and it will continue into the future.
