{"id":81139,"date":"2020-06-29T15:53:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T07:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=81139"},"modified":"2020-06-29T15:53:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T07:53:16","slug":"sarawak-to-spend-rm70-million-on-reef-balls-for-marine-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=81139","title":{"rendered":"Sarawak to spend RM70 million on reef balls for marine conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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File photo of SEMATAN Island in Sarawak. A marine police patrol boat seen monitoring the waters off Tanjung Datu and its surroundings including Satang Island. Known for its eco-tourism, the area offers attractive destinations such as the Sematan Beach area, Talang-Salang Island, Sebat waterfalls as well as the Tanjung Datu forest park. Photo courtesy of BERNAMA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KUCHING, June 29 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Sarawak\u00a0government\u00a0has allocated\u00a0RM70 million to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) for implementing the\u00a0Sarawak Reef Ball Project (SRBP) as part of its marine conservation initiatives, said\u00a0Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the project, which kicked off in 2018, aims to deploy 17,200 reef balls along the coastline of Sarawak, stretching from Tanjung Datu on the southern tip of the state to Lawas, its northern most district. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This will improve the local community’s livelihood by enhancing marine resources and protect their fishing grounds from illegal trawling activities,” he said in a statement issued by SFC today in conjunction with a ceremony to deploy 1,200 reef balls by him at the Muara Tebas-Sebuyau coastal waters near here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ceremony, held as a low-key event in adherence to the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Urban Development and Resources Assistant Minister Datuk Len Talif Salleh, State Secretary Datuk Jaul Samion and SFC chief executive officer Zolkipli Mohamad Aton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Sarawak Reef Ball project is an exemplary conservation project that has not only benefited the marine wildlife and ecosystem, particularly the turtles, but it has proven to improve the livelihood of local fishermen,\u201d said Abang Johari, who is also SFC chairman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abang Johari said the success of the project was evident in the waters of Sematan on Sarawak\u2019s southern side and Belawai in the state\u2019s central region, where the amount of catch had increased after the reef balls had been deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, SFC has placed 600 units of reef balls in the Belawai-Paloh coastal waters, 600 units in the Lawas waters and 1,200 units in the Igan-Mukah water region, while the deployment works for these artificial reefs in the Muara Tebas-Sebuyau waters would be completed in a week.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we progressively keep Sarawak\u2019s coastal waters away from illegal trawlers, marine species would be able to grow and reproduce and local fishermen living along the shores can have better catch and income,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUCHING, June 29 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Sarawak\u00a0government\u00a0has allocated\u00a0RM70 million to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) for implementing the\u00a0Sarawak Reef Ball Project (SRBP) as part of its marine conservation initiatives, said\u00a0Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg. He said the project, which kicked off in 2018, aims to deploy 17,200 reef balls along the coastline of Sarawak, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":81141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81139"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}