Eye-opening talk on wildlife in the city

Ong says everyone has a duty to help conserve nature in the city.

PARTICIPANTS of a sustainability development talk discovered nature and wildlife in unlikely places in the city during a talk entitled “Making Peace with Urban Wildlife”.

“We may discover nature anywhere, because we are surrounded by nature.

“City people tend to think that wildlife is only found in the forest. In fact, nature is everywhere, even at a carpark. If there is a small hole, and there are ants living, nature is there,” said founder and leader of The Rimba Project Benjamin Ong.

Besides parks and gardens, he said a third space of wild ecosystems was the area commonly known as “belukar”.

Ong is a recipient of the Chevening-CIMB Asean Scholarship, a UK government award for emerging leaders.

The talk organised by Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) challenged the average Malaysian’s values and attitudes towards nature.

It was held at 11th Floor, International Conference Hall of Wisma Kebudayaan SGM in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

Ong also introduced the Klang Valley City Nature Challenge 2018 as an invitation to explore the urban wild around us.

There was positive feedback from the floor as he shared the different kinds of human-and-nature situations that can be seen in the city and how everyone can help to conserve it.