Malaysia is prominent as a mega diverse country. As a matter of fact, my university itself also has lots of hidden gems. Interestingly you can find more than 1,500 terrestrial vertebrates species, 15,000 flowering plants species and 150,000 invertebrates species!In order to engage the community to appreciate the intrinsic value of the biodiversity in campus, the environmental secretariat of University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia, under the flagship program called UM Rimba* had organized the inaugural Biodiversity Week from 27^th of October to 1^st of November. I was lucky to be appointed as the coordinator for volunteers recruited in this event.

Throughout the week, we had slew of mind-opening activities for both public and campus community to participate. Even though most of the activities were held during the weekday when students would be occupied with lectures and adults would be committed with work, we still received great support and participation for each activity. Since we aimed to maximize the participants learning opportunities, our biodiversity activities basically cover: day and night flora and fauna technical and non-technical learning guided and non-guided.

Below are the lists of biodiversity programs:


Flora Section

Activity 1: Tree Mapping Workshop
Tree Mapping is an activity to create database on tree in the vicinity of your house, institution, company etc. This workshop teaches the participant technical skill and it is guided by two biologists on the methodology. It promotes appreciation to trees and not merely seeing it as a brown trunk bearing the green. Basically, the two biologists will identify the tree species together with participants as they go for an excursion followed by mapping it in Google map. 

Activity 2: Tree Walk
Tree Walk is a guided and non-technical (involves informal learning) day time excursion around the campus lake and park area. Throughout the stroll, participants will be exposed to the name and the uniqueness of the trees seen along the walkway. At the end of this activity, we hope to instill sense of appreciation in participants by being able to recognize trees like how they remember their friends.

Activity 3: Rimba Tour
The land before my university is built was actually a large patch of forest. Due to the construction, most of the trees were felled and Rimba Ilmu is the remaining portion of the forest, spanning for more than 40 years. Rimba Ilmu, a 80 hectares large botanical garden is modeled based on the concept of rainforest. It contains 1,600 species and attracts scientists from all over the world to study various fascinating creatures. In order to share the same excitement imbued in the scientists with the public, we organize this two hours guided tour. Technical explanation on tree?s taxonomy and scientific name are avoided to cater for layman?s understanding.

Flora and Fauna Section

Activity 4: Night Walk
Night Walk is almost akin to Rimba Tour except that it is conducted during night time where participants can experience a whole new dimension of walking under the shadows of huge trees, with the surround sound made by Mother Nature i.e. frogs croaking, cricket chirping happily and owl hooting at the tree top while scanning for prey. Participants amble their way along medicinal plants section, firefly habitat and also bamboo plants area.

 Fauna Section

Activity 5: Bat Watching
Bat Watching is conducted at dawn inside Rimba Ilmu by observing the sky especially the space between tree to tree. Participants are also taught to differentiate between bat and bird. While bird flies in a flapping pattern, we usually see bat dashes its way.

Activity 6: Frogging
Frogging is guided by amphibian expert in the quest for the elusive and fast-leaping frogs.  Here we discovered various species of frogs, each with unique morphology.

Activity 7: Bee Watching
In Bee Watching, participants will learn the skill to distinguish between wasp and bee. Besides, they also get to taste pure honey obtained directly from bee hives!

Activity 8: Bird Watching
The tree top is inhabited by various unseen fauna at ground level. Armed with high magnification binocular in early morning, we manage to spot a few unique species. Check out photos below!

*Rimba is a Bahasa Malaysia word which is defined as a rainforest with lots of huge trees around.

Photo 1:The trees species identified will then be mapped into pericopsis website.
Photo 2: Family having fun in Rimba Tour.
Photo 3: Adult firefly.
Photo 4: Spotted a female firefly! Apparently female remains as larvae form as adult and not the usual flying type.
Photo 5: The most participated activity - night walk.
Photo 6: Volunteer opening up a stingless bee hive for a participant to try some wildflower honey.
Photo 7:  Bird watching in the morning.
Photo 8: Male Pink-Necked Green Pigeon (Trevon vernans)
Photo 9: Participants with TUNZA's pen