64
/
Higher Education and Community Engagement
Reintroduction Program at the Kuala Selangor Nature Park. Every March, the society organizes the largest Raptor Watch with the public, academics, and students joining members to participate in this process. In Singapore, the Nature Society of Singapore identified Jurong as a niche area for a bird sanctuary after studying their migration with the aid of academics, an instance of the interaction between the government and NGOs. In 2005, MNS introduced Malaysia’s first national checklist of birds. In 2008, MNS launched the bird i-witness, Malaysian version of the World birds database, an online Database system and also won the won Birdlife International Conservation award. In the same year, MNS also won the inaugural Merdeka award in the Environment Category. While biodiversity of tropical rain forests is very high, there has been a decline in the flora and fauna there as a sustainable resources today. This needs to be communicated to the public at large and this is a role academics can continue to play. Malaysian academic institutions need to capitalize on Malaysia’s location advantage. Unfortunately it appears that Malaysian academics discarded their interest in taxonomy, ecology, biodiversity and instead start researching molecular biology, gene sequence, genetic engineering and related areas. While not rejecting the value of the latter, if the academics focus their research on the eco physiology, biodiversity, and sustainability of tropical rainforest, they would have the location advantage which would give us an edge in research internationally. When discussing academic-community cooperation, the Malaysian Nature Society and universities in Malaysia and Singapore were probably among the best models. There must be some mechanism for cooperation in education if we want successful community projects creating the right spirit and attitude. Educational institutes today need to co-operate again with the Malaysian Nature Society, not only organising field projects as done previously but also to extend it to other people and universities for a more co-operative enterprise. Community organisations have a mission and passion while Universities have the knowledge. But if you do not put the passion and the knowledge together, you will not get far. NGOs will help researchers elevate their research to the next level of passion. Academics who are interested in environment conservation and biodiversity should participate in community work to become more effective. We need more collaborations and interactions in the sphere of nature and the environment to enhance synergies. It would help if academics document the information more scientifically and assist MNS in running biodiversity surveys. MNS also