KOTA KINABALU: A book on Walai Penyu Conservation Park will hit the market Tuesday, June 28,to coincide with the World Ocean Month.
The book is an elaboration of the aspirations and struggles of its founder and managing director Alexander Yee,co-authored with Dr. James Alin, an environmentalist.
James, in a brief interview said that he believed the book was important to ensure that the generations to come would appreciate and understand the importance of turtle conservation as well as the struggles of their conservators.
The book entitled “A Tale of 30 Thousand Turtles” is about the journey of the sea turtle conservation works on Libaran island, starting from the beginning when the people from the village there still harvested turtle eggs for food and commerce.
Through the years, with patience and tenacity, as well as education, Alexander had convinced the people that conservation was necessary to ensure the perpetuation of the species.
In the beginning objections from the villagers was rife and it disheartened the founder tremendously, almost leading to him giving up the praiseworthy project.
“His story was interesting and I believed that it should be compiled in a book. All the happy and inspiring tales should be written and shared with others. At that time, he was ready to give up due to villagers who were against his conservation efforts,” James shared.
During a long heartfelt conversation between James and Alexander, about whether or not the conservation efforts should be continued, a turtle came ashore, right to their place where they were seated and started to lay its eggs.
“It was like a sign for me not to give up; that conservations should be continued to ensure against their eventual extinction,” Alexander said.
A photograph immortalised the sights of the two happy men with the turtle and now grace the back cover of the book.
“30,000 baby sea turtles that had been released during the 10 years since in 2010, thus the book title. The proceeds from the sales of the book will go to conservation programmes. At the moment, the turtle conservation activities are carry out by the Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research (FOSTER).”
“We are planning to set up the FOSTER environment award to give recognition to the media and the marine works carry out by Sabahan non-governmental organisations (NGOs), individuals and groups. We will also set up a platform for marine based NGOs in Sabah to exchange ideas so that we can have the synergy flowing. We will work together with Tanjung Aru Marine Ecosystem Centre (TAME) to conduct workshops and study sessions,” Alexander shared.
The sea turtle conservation efforts won the Asean Sustainable Tourism Standard Award 2022-2023 for the rural category on March 2022 and the Best Tourism Product 2019 awarded by Sabah Tourism Board.-BNN
