The first Biodiversity for Busy Managers workshop recently held in Sabah, Malaysia gave insights on the global importance of biodiversity and the current state of ecosystems. DAVE BAKEWELL reports.

Written by Dave Bakewell on 7 Apr 2010 with 0 comments. Be the first!

The first Biodiversity for Busy Managers training workshop, jointly organized by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Wild Asia, took place in the Sabah Hotel, Sandakan, in Sabah, on 23-24th March 2010. Almost 30 participants, consisting mainly of estate managers from plantations in Sabah, took part in the workshop, where they heard about the global importance of biodiversity and the current state of ecosystems across the planet, learned important principles for managing landscapes in order to protect biodiversity, shared their own successes and challenges in protecting biodiversity in the plantation context, and gained new insights through hands-on simulations in dealing with practical biodiversity issues and negotiating solutions with diverse stakeholders.

According to feedback, the participants went away with a clearer understanding of what biodiversity is, and the important biodiversity issues for oil palm plantations. They also felt that they had been equipped to manage their plantations in order to protect and enhance biodiversity, and to deal with multiple stakeholder interests. Many returned to their plantations from the workshop keen to spread the message to their peers and workforce.

"I will give a briefing to our workers and estate personnel during our training and awareness programme," said Gelbert Genyulai of PPB Oils. Others went back with specific plans to implement actions that would restore or improve biodiversity. Sim Gik Tzi, of Genting Plantations Berhad, outlined one of his planned outcomes from the workshop: "Within six months we will survey the natural waterways in the estate, identify sources of pollution and devise a plan to mitigate these systematically."

Overall, the workshop was well-received. Many participants requested that, in future workshops, we give more details of real case studies of examples of biodiversity enhancement measures on oil palm estates. If you have any such examples, please send us a brief account and some photos, and we will be glad to incorporate them into forthcoming Biodiversity for Busy Managers workshops.

For more information on submitting case studies, visit Managing Biodiversity in Oil Palm Plantations - What Works and What Doesn't?