KOTA KINABALU: The Third Country Training Programme in Sabah, or better known as Sabah TCTP, will be held from August 7-28 this year.
Themed 'Integrated Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management Training Course', the event will attract 18 participants from seven nations, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Uganda.
Sabah TCTP is jointly organised by the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ITBC), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Sabah state government through the National Resources Office of Sabah (NRO) in collaboration with Japanese government through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects implementing agency, JICA and Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) under the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The current series of the Sabah TCTP is in its second cycle of implementation which will run over a three-year period commencing from 2013 to 2015. The first cycle ran from 2009 to 2011.
Acting director of ITBC Prof Dr Charles Santhanaraju Vairappan, Sabah has one of the best conservation practices in Malaysia to be shared with the participants.
Sabah TCTP aims to provide relevant knowledge and skills on conservation management from planning to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The three-week programme also aims to introduce and emphasise the idea of integrated effort between implementing agencies and the locals for better understanding of alternative livelihood in conservation, as well as to facilitate interaction and sharing of experiences, learning process and evaluation on conservation projects.
"TCTP is an important avenue to foster close working relationship on environmental education between state agencies and UMS to showcase Sabah as a champion of environmental conservation."
He said the Sabah TCTP was unique because it was funded by both the Malaysian and Japanese governments.
"The total budget for the first cycle is RM900,000 while that of the second cycle is RM1.252 million," he said.
The training programme encompasses knowledge and skill acquirement pertaining to integration, planning and fund acquisition, implementation of research and education, implementation of park management, implementation of habitat management, and implementation of public awareness.
The training approaches include formal classroom lectures, as well as extensive field visits to protected areas, interactions with local communities living in and at the peripheral of the protected areas and discussion with conservation practitioners on the ground.
Sabah TCTP has its roots from the 'Bornean Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conservation Programme' (BBEC).
Aimed at conserving the endangered and precious biodiversity and natural ecosystems of Sabah, the BBEC programme is a technical cooperation programme among three parties, namely Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Sabah State Government and the Japanese Government through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects implementing agency, JICA.
The BBEC Programme was implemented in two successive phases, Phase 1 and 2, in Sabah.
Since its inception in 2002, the programme has been carried out for a period of more than 10 years.
It was the aspiration of all those involved in BBEC Programme that the conservation model developed during Phase 1 of this programme to be nationally shared within Malaysia, and internationally recognized.
Motivated by this aspiration, during Phase 2 of the BBEC Programme, one of the main outputs identified was for UMS, Sabah state agencies, and other related organizations to conduct training on biodiversity and ecosystem conservation for both foreign and local trainees, based on Sabah's experiences and knowledge gained through the BBEC Programme.
Eventually this has led to the development of the Sabah TCTP, which has been incorporated as one of the main annual activities of MTCP since 2009.
Also present were Sabah TCTP coordinators Dr Bakhtiar Effendi Yahya and Dr Mahadi Menakbar Mohd Dawood.
Themed 'Integrated Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management Training Course', the event will attract 18 participants from seven nations, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Uganda.
Sabah TCTP is jointly organised by the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ITBC), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Sabah state government through the National Resources Office of Sabah (NRO) in collaboration with Japanese government through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects implementing agency, JICA and Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) under the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The current series of the Sabah TCTP is in its second cycle of implementation which will run over a three-year period commencing from 2013 to 2015. The first cycle ran from 2009 to 2011.
Acting director of ITBC Prof Dr Charles Santhanaraju Vairappan, Sabah has one of the best conservation practices in Malaysia to be shared with the participants.
Sabah TCTP aims to provide relevant knowledge and skills on conservation management from planning to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The three-week programme also aims to introduce and emphasise the idea of integrated effort between implementing agencies and the locals for better understanding of alternative livelihood in conservation, as well as to facilitate interaction and sharing of experiences, learning process and evaluation on conservation projects.
"TCTP is an important avenue to foster close working relationship on environmental education between state agencies and UMS to showcase Sabah as a champion of environmental conservation."
He said the Sabah TCTP was unique because it was funded by both the Malaysian and Japanese governments.
"The total budget for the first cycle is RM900,000 while that of the second cycle is RM1.252 million," he said.
The training programme encompasses knowledge and skill acquirement pertaining to integration, planning and fund acquisition, implementation of research and education, implementation of park management, implementation of habitat management, and implementation of public awareness.
The training approaches include formal classroom lectures, as well as extensive field visits to protected areas, interactions with local communities living in and at the peripheral of the protected areas and discussion with conservation practitioners on the ground.
Sabah TCTP has its roots from the 'Bornean Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conservation Programme' (BBEC).
Aimed at conserving the endangered and precious biodiversity and natural ecosystems of Sabah, the BBEC programme is a technical cooperation programme among three parties, namely Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Sabah State Government and the Japanese Government through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects implementing agency, JICA.
The BBEC Programme was implemented in two successive phases, Phase 1 and 2, in Sabah.
Since its inception in 2002, the programme has been carried out for a period of more than 10 years.
It was the aspiration of all those involved in BBEC Programme that the conservation model developed during Phase 1 of this programme to be nationally shared within Malaysia, and internationally recognized.
Motivated by this aspiration, during Phase 2 of the BBEC Programme, one of the main outputs identified was for UMS, Sabah state agencies, and other related organizations to conduct training on biodiversity and ecosystem conservation for both foreign and local trainees, based on Sabah's experiences and knowledge gained through the BBEC Programme.
Eventually this has led to the development of the Sabah TCTP, which has been incorporated as one of the main annual activities of MTCP since 2009.
Also present were Sabah TCTP coordinators Dr Bakhtiar Effendi Yahya and Dr Mahadi Menakbar Mohd Dawood.