Sunday 22 April 2018

Earth Day 2018

Earth Day today! This day is celebrated annually to demonstrate support for environmental protection which covers natural habitats, wildlife, managing natural resources and waste. What Earth Day means to me as a nature guide is supporting sustainable tourism.

Sustainable tourism, one that establishes a suitable balance between the environmental, economic and sociocultural aspects of tourism development, plays an important role in conserving biodiversity. It attempts to minimize its impact on the environment and local culture so that it will be available for future generations, while contributing to generate income, employment, and the conservation of local ecosystems. 
Source: https://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/sustour-define.html

Speaking on behalf of all true nature guides in Malaysia, sustaining natural habitats is the important key to wildlife and flora protection apart from the threat of the wildlife poachers. Managing and educating mass tourists to pay extra care and respect towards our local environment and wildlife should be carried out by all stake holders as well as our local guides. A protected rainforest together with her wild inhabitants will continue to encourage visitors from all over the world to visit Langkawi and of course, Malaysia thus continuously generating income to the locals.

My photo pick for this Earth Day is a walk in our Langkawi's lowland rainforest during our birdwatching tour with Taison and Mandy from Hong Kong recently. Both of them are in the wildlife and environmental research sector and both are vegans. A plus point for them is when they showed up on my tour with their own water bottles, in a way to help reduce the usage of those drinking plastic bottles. Some of the small hotels on the island provide drinking water stations for their guests to refill their drinking bottles and it is the time now for these big luxurious resorts to do the same. There are no excuses. Thank you Taison and Mandy for being responsible tourists.