swp voluntary service 2009

8/14/2019 SWP Voluntary Service 2009

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SCOUTS OF THE WORLD PROGRAMME

VOLUNTARY SERVICE 2009

SUMMARY REPORT

Compiled by: VSL Nicholas Koh

Date: 16 August 2009


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Scout of the World Programme 2009Project Orion Rovering with Turtles

Done By: Nicholas Koh Yong Zhi

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS..........................................................................................................2

PERSONAL PARTICULARS ................................................................................4

NEXT-OF-KIN PARTICULARS.............................................................................5

EMERGENCY CONTACTS IN MALAYSIA...........................................................5

ADDRESS OF SINGAPORE MISSION IN MALAYSIA:....................................................5CONTACTS OF SINGAPORE MISSION IN MALAYSIA:..................................................5

EQUIPMENT LIST................................................................................................6

GENERAL INFORMATION...................................................................................7

SETIU, TERENGGANU INFORMATION..............................................................8

INVOLVEMENT....................................................................................................10

DAY 1 20 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................11

REFLECTIONS OF DAY 1 .................................................................................12

DAY 2 21 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................13


DAY 3 22 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................16


DAY 4 23 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................18


DAY 5 24 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................21


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DAY 6 25 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................23


DAY 7 26 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................26


DAY 8 27 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................28


DAY 9 28 JUNE 2009 ......................................................................................31


DAY 10 29 JUNE 2009 ....................................................................................33

REFLECTIONS OF DAY 10 ...............................................................................34

DAY 11 30 JUNE 2009 ....................................................................................36


DAY 12 1 JULY 2009.......................................................................................38


DAY 13 2 JULY 2009.......................................................................................40


CONCLUSION....................................................................................................42

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Personal Particulars

Name Nicholas Koh Yong Zhi

NRIC S8411721H

Age 25+

Gender Male

Citizenship Singaporean

Contact Number 97652516

Residential AddressBLK 134 Lorong Ah Soo #08-466

Singapore 530134

Blood type A+

Allergies Amoxil

Dietary Restrictions NIL

Medical Conditions NIL

Medications NIL

School NA

Scout Troop Cuon Scout Group

Year joined Scouting 1993

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Next-of-kin Particulars

Name Lau Kim Choo

NRIC S1413388G

Relationship Mother

Contact Number 81324639

Residential AddressBLK 134 Lorong Ah Soo #08-466

Singapore 530134

Emergency Contacts in Malaysia

Address of Singapore Mission in Malaysia:

209 Jalan Tun Razak

50400 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Email: [email protected]

Contacts of Singapore Mission in Malaysia:

02-(03) 2161-6404, 2161-6277, 2161-6506, 2161-6612, 2161-6752

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mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Equipment List

CONTENTS QTY

- Backpack 1

- Eating Utensils (mess tin, fork & spoon) 1 Set

- Water bottle (1litre) 2

- Rain Coat 1

- Sleeping Bag 1

- Personal toiletries (toothbrush, towel, etc) 1 Set

- T-shirts 7

- Jacket / Windbreaker 1

- Shorts 3

- trekking / hiking pants 4

- Socks 7

- Undergarments 8

- Track Shoes 1 Pair

- Slippers / Sandals 1 Pair

- Scouts Uniform (with Singapore flag badge) 2 Set

- Stationery (Notebook, Pen, Pencil, Markers) 1 Set

- Camera 1

- Torch light 1

- Spare Batteries 4 AA

- Personal First Aid Kit 1 Set

- Passport 1

- Money

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General Information

Title: Project Orion Rovering with Turtles

Dates: 20 June 2009 05 July 2009Location: Terengganu Setiu Wetlands, Malaysia

Organizer: The Singapore Scout Association

Participants:

- 19 ~ 25 years of age Rover Scouts from Singapore and Malaysia.

- 08 Rover Scouts from Singapore and 01 Rover Scout from Malaysia

participated in this event.

Project Orion Team Members are:

Team Leader: Oliver Lim

Team Co-leader: Melissa Heng

Team Advisor: Tan Sijie

Liaison: Arvind Danapalan

Secretary: Ashok Kumar

Treasurer: Muhd Isa

Ops Manager: Nicholas Koh

Ops Manager: Ong May Lwin

Logistics Manager: Parry Lim

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Setiu, Terengganu Information

The Setiu Wetlands are located in the northeast of Peninsula Malaysia, in the

state of Terengganu. For Terengganu, approximately 51.6% or 670,000 ha of the

state still remains under forest cover. Of this, 5,168 ha are designated as

plantation (Krishnapillay & Ong, 2003).

The wetlands form part of the Setiu river basin and the region features:

Estuaries and deltas

Intertidal mudflats, sand flats and mangroves

Coastal brackish and saline lagoons and marshes

Melaleuca swamp forest (known locally as *gelam*) or freshwater swamp

forests with vegetation comprising almost exclusively of Melaleuca

cejeputi

Lowland dry forest with characteristic Dipterocarps and Nipah palm (Nypa

fructicans). (Global Environment Facility, 1999).

This range of habitats provides a variety of floristic communities, which in turn

support animal communities characteristic of tropical wetland ecosystems.

Setiu Wetland is a unique place in the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia where it

has national and international importance for conservation. The wetland is home

to the critically endangered river terrapin, painted terrapin and also the important

landing site for marine turtles especially the green turtles in northern

Terengganu. It also has high biodiversity and an important area for fishery

resources.

In the same time, Setiu is the poorest district in the state and even in the nation.

Majority of the population in Setiu works in the fisheries sectors and living the

subsistence lifestyle where they are highly dependent on the natural resources

for generating income. As the government is pushing hard to enhance agriculture

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and aquaculture activities to increase the livelihood status of the local population,

this move escalate the stress on the wetland ecosystems in Setiu due to

conversion of wetland for other economic uses.

Hence, conservation in Setiu Wetland is a great challenge where we need to

balance the socio-economic development needs and the need to protect the

ecosystems* functions. WWF believe that by introducing the alternative livelihood

to the local populations to pull away their dependancy on natural resources for

subsistence could in future lower the stress on the wetland resources

consumption and create more sustainable condition that enables the socio-

economic development and conservation take place in harmony. This mean can

be achieved by promoting Ecotourism. As ecotourism is a high conscience

industry, the local population must be made aware the non-consumptive value of

the ecosystems and capacity build the local population to actively participate in

the industry.

Work done by WWF includes:

Turtle & painted terrapin conservation

Facilitating cottage industry activities for the womenfolk so they canincrease their economy, so they in turn dont rely on the natural resources

for income

Mangrove replanting

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Involvement

- Beach patrolling for any turtle nesting

- Mangrove replanting or work at the mangrove nursery

- Awareness events in schools

- Basic English classes for the locals (adults/kids)

- Painting of school mural

- Improvise/renovate/paint WWF information centre (and minor repairs if

any)

- Beach clean-up

- Assist local women with cottage industry

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DAY 1 20 June 2009

TIME ACTIVITIES

1500hrs Arrival at Setiu, Terengganu

1530hrs Logistics & Supplies organization

1600hrs Camp Development

1800hrs Dinner

1930hrs Group Meeting

2200hrs Equipment preparation, maintenance & Wash up

Lights out

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Reflections of Day 1

We arrived at the Zonice Rover Scouts base in Kuala Lumpur at 6.30am on day

1, where we rendezvous with Arvind our Malaysian Liaison Officer, and to pick up

much of our key logistics for this trip. We were hosted to a sumptuous breakfastat Zonice Rovers base, we had roti chenai and nasi lemak and we also took

some group photos. We left for Terengganu shortly thereafter.

We arrived at Penarik Inn Setiu Terengganu, at about 3pm. At Penarik, we

quickly distributed our equipment supplies and begin with our campsite

development.

After the camp development, we rode on our bicycles to a nearby food stall to

have our dinner. We had our group meeting before wrapping up for the night.

When we first arrived at Terengganu, I noticed the soft sand and gentle sea

breeze, which gives a very relaxing impression of the place.

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DAY 2 21 June 2009

TIME ACTIVITIES0630hrs Reveille

0730hrs Breakfast

0930hrs Introduction to hatchery work by WWF

1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs Painting works at the WWF Info Centre

1700hrs Hatchery work

1900hrs Dinner

2000hrs Cycling to Talaga Papan

2100hrs Release of hatchlings

2200hrs Return to camp

2300hrs Meeting with WWF


Lights out

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We woke up at 6.30am, and to my surprise, the sunrise seems to be much

prettier on the east coast of Malaysian peninsular. We had our breakfast, and

were introduced to hatchery work by WWFs Nurul for the start of our trip.

The hatchery was a lot simpler than what I had expected. Maybe because the

hatchery was built to simulate an environment as close to the turtles natural

nesting environment, and so for the hatchery workers convenience, the turtle

nests were sited next to one another. The hatchery was protected with some

netting around and on top of it, to keep out predators from the land and air. There

were some traps built inside the hatchery to catch any crabs that manage to

burrow their way through.

After lunch, we proceeded to the WWF Info centre, also affectionately known as

the pink house to the locals, to help out with some painting works. The info

centre was recently rented by WWF to enable its conservation work in the area. It

allows WWF to work with the local community, Pewanis a local womens group

to spread the message of the importance of turtle conservation, to the local

villagers. Especially when Setiu is a nesting ground for turtles and many of the

local folk are fishermen; it is very common for fishermen around the area to come

into contact with these turtles. If these fishermen are aware of the plight of these

turtles and help to protect these turtles, then it may give these turtles a better

chance at survival.

After the painting works, we were told that there were two nests of turtles

hatching and so we proceeded to the hatchery excitedly to observe the hatching

process. We were delighted as this is the first time in the hatchery that there

were two nests hatching at the same time. Usually, only one nest will hatch in

any one day.

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Once these turtles hatch, they had to be released that night, and so after our

dinner, we cycled down to talaga papan beach the site where these turtles

were found, to release them. It was an exciting moment to see these hatchlings

released back into the wild.

After we returned to our campsite, we had a discussion with Mr River Foo, the

community liaison officer for WWF. It was a meaningful discussion as we now

had a better understanding of the situation in the local community.

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DAY 3 22 June 2009


0730hrs Breakfast

0900hrs Meeting with WWF

1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs Renovation site 1 visit

1700hrs Hatcherys nest excavation

1900hrs Dinner

2000hrs Fireflies boat trip


2230 Equipment preparation, maintenance & Wash up

Lights out

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We woke up at 6.30am, had our breakfast, and proceeded to have a proper

discussion with WWF on how we can carry out the intended work. Many details

were thrashed out, like when and how to carry out beach clean-up, patrolling,mangrove re-planting, school visits, mural paintings and renovation works.

One of the biggest problems is the renovation works. How much are we going to

renovate to what extent, and will we be able to complete the project as

promised? Therefore, we agreed to make a visit to the site to have a better

understanding after our lunch.

Following the site visit, we went down to the hatchery to observe how a nest is

excavated after all the hatchlings have been released into the sea. The

remaining shells and undeveloped eggs were properly disposed of by burning;

this is to prevent any contamination, which may result from animals coming into

contact with these shells and eggs or these materials leaking into the seas and

rivers.

After dinner, we had an enjoyable boat ride to observe fireflies in the vicinity. It

was a relaxing moment to enjoy the beautiful sight the fireflies brought.

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DAY 4 23 June 2009


0730hrs Breakfast

0830hrs Cycling to beach cleanup site

0900hrs Beach cleanup

1100hrs Return to hatchery


1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs School visit

1700hrs School Mural Painting discussion

1900hrs Dinner

2100hrs Beach Patrol


0330hrs Wash up

0400hrs Lights out

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We woke up at 6.30am, had our breakfast, and cycled down to the beach

cleanup site to begin with our beach cleanup. The beach is situated some

distance away from the village, but the villagers do use the beach on their restdays for recreational activities like fishing. Thus most of the trash collected there

are actually trash washed ashore, and only some of the trash are contributed

locally. Styrofoam and plastic bottles remain the highest amount of debris

collected, however I do think that it is not plastics or Styrofoam that pollutes the

earth but rather improper disposal of such trash causes pollution all around us.

We returned to the hatchery after our cleanup, to do some repair works on the

hatchery. The netting above the hatchery has some tears and needed to be

repaired, and so we did some needle-work, by using fishing lines, we joined torn

nets and they worked as good as new.

After lunch, we made a visit to the school; I was pleasantly surprised that the

local Cub Scout Pack actually has so many Cub Scouts. They put up a

performance known as Chorus Speaking, and they had actually won an award

for their efforts. Before we left, we had a discussion with the teacher Cik Sahaa

to finalize the design of the mural painting for the schools wall. We were

unprepared and part of the team had to work after lunch to resolve the painting

preparations.

Parry, Arvind, Oliver and I carried on with the beach patrol. The patrolling was a

little terrifying. There was a thunderstorm and we were walking out on the beach,

right in the open. Lightning strike all around us, and we were the tallest objectaround. Fortunately our ranger is experienced enough and led us to a nearby

shelter, and we waited for the storm to pass. While under the shelter, a tree was

strike by lightning just 10m away from us, but the storm slowly passed after 2

hours.

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We carried on with the patrolling and shortly after crossing a fast flowing river, we

came across our first sighting. The turtle had just laid its eggs and was about to

return to the sea, and we were so lucky to be able to see it before it completely

disappeared into the ocean. We quickly followed its tracks to its nest and dug up

its eggs. This turtle is the largest ever seen by the ranger and we collected

around 150 eggs, which is extraordinarily high because turtles usually lay around

100 eggs. Maybe its because of the size of the turtle that its able to lay 150+

eggs. Anyway, we were lucky. We gave a call to Nurul, for her to come down to

collect the eggs.

We carried on with the patrol and we were lucky enough to witness a second

nest. This time around, there were 70+ eggs and in all we collected 230+ eggs

for that evening. We eventually followed Nurul back to the hatchery to observe

how these eggs are placed into the surrogate nests.

The rain also flooded our campsite, and thankfully River lent us his place for us

to spend our night in.

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DAY 5 24 June 2009


0730hrs Breakfast

0830hrs Strike Camp

0930hrs Movement to new campsite

1000hrs Camp Development

1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs Mural Painting and Sketching

1900hrs Dinner


Lights out

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The day began a lot harsher than the previous 4 days, as we had just completed

a beach patrol the night before, and we had to quickly move to re-establish a new

campsite after breakfast.

The team began to strike camp and retrieve the logistics from the campsite,

fortunately for us; we could camp on grounds next to the WWF info centre. With

Rivers help, we shifted all our equipment to the new camping ground, and half

the team began setting up the new campsite. The other half of the team

proceeded to Permaisuri, a small town 45 minutes drive away, to get the painting

supplies.

After lunch we carried on with the camp development and mural sketching

respectively. After dinner, we were scheduled to help out with the mural painting,

while the other half carried on with their beach patrol but unfortunately the rain

came at a wrong timing and mural painting was postpone till the next day.

Due to the heavy downpour, we rested at the WWF info centre instead.

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DAY 6 25 June 2009


0730hrs Mangrove Marking1030hrs Breakfast

1100hrs Mural Painting

1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs Mural Painting

2100hrs Dinner


Lights out

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The day started earlier than usual, as Arvind and I followed Nurul and River to

the mangroves to carry out mangrove marking for the following day 26 June

2009.

Mangrove plants are resilient, they are able to survive the inundation of salt water

twice a day, and as a result, these plants can grow in areas where no other trees

can grow. To survive, they use an ultra-filtration technique at the root level to

remove excess salts and purify the water. The roots also reach above the ground

level for oxygen.

The mangrove replanting involves not just the mangrove plants, but also the

Nipah Palm plants, which produces a fruit rich in nutrients and attracts shellfish to

feed on it. As a result of these shellfish, it attracts other marine creatures to feed

on them, creating a food chain.

Together these plants provide a food-source for marine life to flourish, and their

roots help to stabilize the soil and mitigate damage caused by storms along the

coast.

After the mangrove marking, I had a quick breakfast before joining the rest for the

mural painting. The mural painting was initially scheduled to be on another wall

that we have completed the sketching, but unfortunately the wall had to be

reserved for the schools activity and we had to settle for another wall.

The team worked pretty fast, by the time I got to the school, the sketching wascompleted and painting had begun. The mural painting took us longer than

expected and halfway through we had to work on Project Grease back at the

WWF info centre for the Pewanis group. Naturally half the team carried on with

the mural painting and the other half began work on Project Grease.

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By 9pm, both sides had completed the tasks and we had our dinner separately

before turning in for the night. We needed to have an earlier night, since the

following day is the mangrove planting with the local community.

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DAY 7 26 June 2009


0630hrs Breakfast0730hrs Mangrove replanting

1300hrs Lunch


1900hrs Dinner



Lights out

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The project is a supporter of the UN Billion Tree Campaign, and we had aimed to

plant 1500 trees for the project. A total of 50 Cub Scouts from SK Mangkok, and

Rovers from Kumpulan Latihan Kelanasiswa Malaysia (KLKM) joined us in theevent. Mr. Hj. Rosdi , State Commissioner KLKM was there to grace the event,

and for that we were very grateful for Persekutuan Pengakap Malaysias (PPM)

(Scout Association of Malaysia) support.

We managed to plant more than 600 mangrove and palm trees before lunch, and

we were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Terengganu Press. The

reporter came to interview us and took some photographs of the event.

We had a break after lunch and just before dinner we went down to the hatchery

to assist in the hatchery work. New hatchlings with origins from Telaga Papan

have just emerged and after dinner we went down with Nurul to release these

hatchlings.

After release the hatchlings back into the sea, we washed up and had an early

rest.

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The session with Prof Chan was indeed enriching. Initially I was skeptical of the

session, because these terrapins were not in line with the objectives of this

project. However after the session, I came to understand how similar these

terrapins are to the sea turtles and these terrapins are also endangered

creatures.

After the session, we carried on with a bit more work on the renovation before

heading down for dinner. After dinner, we washed up and had a good rest.

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DAY 9 28 June 2009


0730hrs Breakfast0830hrs Renovation works

1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs Renovation works

1900hrs Dinner


Lights out

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After two hectic days of mangrove replanting, we woke up to a slower start. The

rest of the day we simply concentrated on the renovation works, which I felt

slightly disappointed by the teams decision to shelve the original plan to plant1500 mangrove trees. However I also understand that we had a commitment to

the local community to deliver what we had promised them. Nevertheless, I had

thought we could achieve both objectives, I still decided to abide by the teams

decision it was a team effort after all.

we were grateful for abang Bee and his friends help, without them we would not

be able to lower the sewerage walls by ourselves.

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DAY 10 29 June 2009



1300hrs Lunch


1900hrs Dinner

2100hrs Beach Patrol at Kuala Bahru

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Most of the day we carried out the renovation works, and it was good to see that

our toilet wall is getting higher. And the toilet is beginning to take its shape. The

weather was so hot, the day passed painfully slow.

After dinner, i began my beach patrol with our ranger at Kuala Bahru beach. As

the ranger could not understand much English and I was unable to communicate

in Malay, we trekked the beach in silent darkness. It started to become

monotonous when we spotted a dark figure from a distance away. As we

approached we spotted a set of terrapin tracks and as we hurried closer, we

were pleasantly surprised by the sight of a terrapin sand-bathing on the beach.

Amazingly, the terrapin did not shy away from us, and we proceeded to retrieve

the terrapin eggs from its nest. Seeing this great opportunity, I proceeded to take

a few quick pictures of the terrapin.

The ranger quickly got to work, and we began to retrieve the eggs from the nest.

There were twelve eggs in total. This terrapin was really large and I was really

lucky, not just to be able to see it, but also to take some good pictures of this

terrapin.

After we had finish collecting the eggs, we began to carry on with our patrol.

Normally terrapins would move away at first sight of humans, but this terrapin

remained fixed to the spot even after we had moved away from the nest.

On the way to the hatchery, we met another fellow ranger and we proceeded to

the hatchery to place the collected eggs. We carried on with a second patrolshortly after our rest at the rangers hut, but there werent any more sightings of

the terrapins.

It was a lucky night for me to be able to spot a terrapin, as they will usually shy

away from any human activity like fishing boats which are common around Kuala

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Bahru. Even though the trek was a little longer, but it was a great experience to

spot a terrapin sand bathing.

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DAY 11 30 June 2009

TIME ACTIVITIES0730hrs Breakfast

0830hrs Rest1300hrs Lunch


1900hrs Dinner



Lights out

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The day started out quickly for me, as I just returned from the beach patrolling. I

had a quick wash up and joined the team for breakfast. I had promised the team

that regardless of the amount of sleep I get, Ill expect nothing less from myself.However, the team decided that Ill be better off with some rest and insisted that I

get some rest back at the WWF info centre.

Thus I managed to catch some sleep until lunch time, and joined the team for the

renovation works. The works took longer than we had expected. The brick laying

was no mean feat and the plastering of the wall was equally tough as well. We

plastered the wall as best as we could, but halfway through the half the team had

to attend the appointment we had with the school Cub Scouts.

Thankfully after dinner, abang Bee and his friends agreed to help us plaster the

wall. They are after professionals, what took us the whole day; they took at most

an hour to complete. They also helped us with the flooring and the installation of

the cistern. Arvind and I stayed around to help abang Bee and friends with simple

errands like moving bricks, mixing plaster, etc.

We finished at 2am, and by then I could hardly think. All I wanted at that point in

time was to catch some sleep.

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DAY 12 1 July 2009



1300hrs Lunch


1600hrs Burial of a dead turtle


2000hrs BBQ Dinner



Lights out

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I had a pretty good rest, and the rest of the day I was recharged and ready to go.

As usual, after breakfast we carried on with the renovation work. I was pretty

frustrated with the progress of the renovation work and was hoping for the workto be done as soon as possible.

We had to lay 3 more layers of bricks for the ventilation window at the top of the

toilet walls each, and that means more plastering. A welcome break came

around evening time when I volunteered to help out with the burial of a dead

turtle.

The turtle had died from drowning and was discovered by a local fisherman. It

was a gross sight to see the turtle bloated up and blood dripping out from its eyes

and mouth. Flies were swarming all around the carcass. After taking a few

measurements, Nurul determined it to be a sub-adult female, about 20 years in

age; we proceeded to dig a hole to bury the turtle.

That evening we had a BBQ dinner, which was meant to be our farewell dinner,

and throughout the dinner, the villagers were very warm and friendly to us. They

kept insisting on serving us and even had performances - Muay Thai/ Tomoi and

Silat to entertain us.

The night ended abruptly when Oliver, our team leader was stung by a

centipede. Nurul help to send him to the nearest hospital for medical assistance.

The night wrapped up when and I volunteered to follow River to release a batchof hatchlings from Talaga Papan.

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DAY 13 2 July 2009


0730hrs Breakfast

0830hrs Cleaning of equipment

1300hrs Lunch

1400hrs Painting works at the WWF Info Centre

1900hrs Dinner

2000hrs Debrief


Lights out

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although the conservation process is slow, but someday we will be able to

witness these turtles taken off from the list of endangered creatures.

Creating a Better World.

swp voluntary service 2009

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