It was my privilege today to be invited by the National Defence University Malaysia to deliver a talk and be a forum panellists to share my views on People and Planet. Thank you to the organizers at UPNM.
42 years ago I walked into the same gates as today into the Sg. Besi Military Base to start
my journey in the Royal Military College as a 'Budak Boy' or Putera as we were officially known. This talk was nostalgic and meaningful to me as I address the men and women in uniform who serves in protecting our nation. The audience today were military officers undertaking various courses and studies at the defence university, from undergrads to post grad and other specializes courses. There was a substantial number of overseas officer doing their studies there who were in attendance too.
My talk was straightforward and focused on Planet and People in meeting the various SDG Goals. I however only focused on the the Royal Belum ecology, biodiversity and more importantly it's indigenous asli community in meeting not only the obvious SDG Goal 15 'Life on Land' but in developing the asli community within their forest landscape, traditions and culture we can meet SDG Goals 1,2,3,4,6,8,13 and 14 too. SDG 4 'Quality Education' being pivotal to the success of any long term sustainability for conservation and protection of the State Parks and it's natural heritage. Education is a huge word but quality alone is not enough if its not delivered appropriately. Generic syllabus will not work if the audience is non mainstream. To bring new knowledge and education to the asli community, there's no one solution fits all. Anyway I'll not dwell on the details here as it'll be far too long and heavy a subject to post here.
The main takeaway today amoung others, is that whilst we look at global goals and targets, real, meaningful and impactful work is on the ground and local. No global goals will be achieved or have impact if it's not translated on the ground to people and communities by people and specialized communities. In the end SDG Goal 17 says it all, no one party, agency or organisation can achieve much by itself. This is now the era of collaboration and partnership. Credit is shared and is not an important factor anymore, what matters is delivering results and make positive impact to people and the planet. Steps may be small but added together they will go a long way.
Once again a big thank you to UPNM for the invite and sharing session.
Too many things happened in 2019 but my own personal highlight of the year was to bring Dr. Jane Goodall to the Royal Belum State Park, meeting my rangers, spending time talking, hiking and a night in the rainforest. Nothing tops being with my conservation hero.
That was my moment.
