NGO Accelerator Programme - What are they up to now?

It’s been just slightly over 3 months since we crowned the final winners of the pitch day for the Environmental NGO Accelerator Programme and all of the participants have been making great progress in turning their projects into reality! So, let’s turn our attention to them and let us introduce to you what these organizations have pitched for and are currently working on right now! As the name suggests, these organizations are currently working on projects that aim to improve the multiple aspects that come with environmental issues and the effort to bring sustainability to our communities, produce, our country’s biodiversity and so much more!

1.Materials In Works

Piloting Upcycling Solution to Tackle On-Label Packaging Waste in Malaysia

In an effort to aid in reducing on-label packaging waste, Materials in Works, with the help of local researchers, has been working on creating a packaging label that would be more eco-friendly and more sustainable. Since then, Materials in Works have been gaining attention on what they do and are on the right track to creating solutions that would help the environment!

2. Kampung Penyu Pangkor

Coastal Tree Adoption for Turtle Landing Sites in Pangkor

Fixing turtle landing sites to encourage sea turtles to lay eggs is no easy task! The people at Kampung Penyu Pangkor came up with this project in hopes that it would be able to not just fix the beaches in Pulau Pangkor but also be able to create a suitable environment where turtles can come and lay their eggs comfortably! Using only trees that are native to the beaches such as Ambong-ambong, Bidara, and Ketapang, the efforts done by this organization are set to bring about great change in Pulau Pangkor!

3. SEAD

Centre of Resilient Ecosystems (CoRE) Community Outreach

Putting their focus on restoring ex-mining lands, SEAD has chosen to execute their agroforestry efforts in Kinta Nature Park by using bamboo. To complement their efforts, SEAD will also be producing a video in order to create awareness of their CoRE activities while also training ‘Restoration Stewards’ through community planting events and by the end of this project, it is estimated that a total of 100 acres of land would have been restored!

4. DIRIBUMI

Taiping Community Composting Station?

As the amount of food waste in Malaysia continues to increase, the team at DIRIBUMI has come forward with a plan to incorporate members of the community in their efforts to deal with this problem. Currently accepting food waste such as ground coffee from local coffee vendors, DIRIBUMI have started their composting project! For the community, by the community. On top of that, DIRIBUMI will soon be growing their project and bringing in more vendors that would increase their compost production!

5. MyCleanBeach

“Wira Plastik”?

In their many experiences of organizing beach cleanups, MyCleanBeach have decided to come up with an idea that would be used in educating the masses and to also encourage better habits to create communities that are more environmentally conscious. With the emphasis on the 6Rs of environmental preservation, their hero, ‘Wira Plastik’ acts as their brand ambassador and will be leading future beach cleanups, special programmes and initiatives that will aid in creating further environmental awareness!

6. Persatuan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian Orang Asal Perak (PKKOAP)

“Balai Penanei”

The task of empowering an entire community is not an easy one, especially when it comes to our indigenous communities! PKKOAP’s mission is to advance and expand the culture, arts and traditions of the indigenous community, particularly in Perak. The upcoming ‘Balai Penanei’ will be used to share knowledge on the indigenous communities and their heritage, increase the livelihood of the local people through eco-tourism activities such as the exploration of jungles, rivers and caves, traditional crafts as well as cultural performances. The ‘Balai Penanei’ is also hoped to empower the local indigenous community to be able to make use of the resources they have not just for themselves but to ensure a better future for generations to come.?

7. Bioloop?

Sustainable Farming using Black Soldier Flies (BFS)-Frass

Combating food wastage and focusing on our nation’s food security are the main priorities of Bioloop in their efforts towards sustainability. By revolutionising food waste management, Bioloop also hopes to feed Malaysia by using their Black Soldier Flies(BSF) Frass. In collaboration with local smallholder farmers, Bioloop intends to boost these farmers’ crop yield via a long-term farming strategy by using their frass. Through this process, Bioloop would be able to create healthy soil for farming and be on track to achieving their mission of strengthening Malaysia’s food security!

8. Green Earth Movement Society (GEMS)?

Enabling Schools Towards Sustainability??

Cultivating sustainable habits should be done at a young age. The team at GEMS noticed that there was a lack of sustainable programs focused on the younger generations, especially those who are still in school and that there were no initiatives towards sustainability in schools as well! In their project, GEMS will be working with a number of schools to promote awareness of the importance of conservation and management of the environment and to also cultivate love and responsibility for the environment and sustainability of the ecosystem amongst children. Thus creating a group of younger children who will be able to make more environmentally conscious decisions on their journey of learning about our environment!

9. Ecotourism & Conservation Society of Malaysia (ECOMY)

Royal Belum Hornbill Expenditure and Birdwatching Training

Malaysia is one of the 12 ‘megadiversity’ countries of the world and boasts a remarkable 742 species of birds, the equivalent of 8% of the world’s total population. Putting that into account, ECOMY has done a project that would encourage people to incorporate bird-watching as they train to be nature guides. Malaysia is seen as a potentially important country to develop birdwatching as a serious tourism product and is dependent on enhancement and the quality maintenance of the natural resources (i.e. birds and their habitats) whereby expert knowledge is needed. Set up as a 3-day programme at Royal Belum, it is hoped to develop nature guides who would be able to conduct interpretative bird-watching tours efficiently.

10. GRASS Malaysia

Laskar Alam?

“Laskar Alam” is an initiative from GRASS to create individuals who will become the bridge between man and nature. They will also be trained in nature conservation as well as the monitoring of certain areas. One of the outcomes that GRASS aims to achieve is to be able to turn these “Laskar Alam” into hosts that would be able to accommodate city folk as well as tourists who are in search of activities that they can do, products and environmental operators. With the Laskar Alam initiative, GRASS also hopes to reduce the nature deficit and create a community that cares for their surroundings to help in the mitigation of climate change, as well as the destruction of our jungles and nature.

11. PRORECA

Benchmarking Environmental & Safety Practices for? Adventure/ Outdoor Practitioners??

An adventure ecotourism organisation, PRORECA had observed a few problems regarding safety that would be dangerous to people doing adventurous outdoor activities. One of them is a lack of “Leave No Trace”(LNT) awareness and a lack of a safety management system amongst adventurers and outdoor activities practitioners. Due to this issue, PRORECA? aims to build more certified LNT Adventurers/ Outdoor Operators and to also train them in safety management. This will help in advocating for LNT and Safety Management as well as spreading awareness of their importance to the members of the public in hopes that outdoor activities will be done more safely for future adventurers to come!?

These 11 organizations have put in a tremendous amount of hard work into their projects and some of them even have succeeded in going above and beyond on their journey towards sustainability! The Environmental NGO Accelerator Programme aspires to build, scale and accelerate a pool of highly effective, influential and synergetic environmental NGOs that will serve as a catalyst to create transformative environmental change and these 11 teams are on track to becoming the catalysts our nation needs in an effort to help our communities and most importantly our environment not just for the duration of our programme, but to be able to create an impact for years to come!?

The Environmental NGO Accelerator Programme is a 6-month mentorship programme organized by Biji-Biji Initiative and is supported by Yayasan Hasanah. We’ll be following up more on the participants and the accelerator programme soon. Follow us to keep yourself updated!