A conservation initiative rooted in Selangor is reimagining the way Malaysians experience forests by transforming hiking trails.
The community-led Penjaga Gunung project wants visitors to better understand biodiversity around them, learn from Orang Asli knowledge and develop a deeper connection with landscapes they are exploring.
The approach has been brought to life at Gunung Gap in Kuala Kubu Baru, which sits within the 108,000ha Hutan Warisan Diraja Selangor.
On the trail, Penjaga Gunung has introduced an interpretive experience integrating conservation education, biodiversity information, community storytelling and interactive installations.
The trail forms part of the initiative’s broader effort to identify and shape forest trails with the potential to become meaningful spaces for conservation, education and public connection with nature.
In a statement, Penjaga Gunung said experiencing a forest should offer more than reaching its peak.
A visitor can walk through a forest without knowing the name of a single tree, it said.
They can pass through important wildlife habitats without realising what lives alongside them or complete a hike without understanding the role forests play in supporting biodiversity and sustaining surrounding communities.
Instead, it said, through carefully designed experiences, a hiking trail could become an open-air classroom for conservation, giving Malaysians the opportunity to understand what they are seeing and, in turn, why it is worth protecting.
Central to the Penjaga Gunung approach is ensuring that Orang Asli knowledge and lived experience remain part of how these landscapes are understood.
This knowledge encompasses more than identification of plants and wildlife.
It carries memory, local names, observations, stories, cultural knowledge and ways of seeing nature.
Through Penjaga Gunung, communities are given space to participate as nature storytellers.
This allows visitors to encounter the forest not only through information provided by researchers, conservation agencies and signage, but through the voices and perspectives of people whose knowledge has been shaped by generations of proximity to the landscape.
This also builds upon Penjaga Gunung’s wider work to strengthen the relationship between Orang Asli communities and the forests they call home, while creating pathways for conservation, formal recognition and sustainable forest-based livelihoods.
The concept was demonstrated through the Penjaga Gunung Royal Hike at Gunung Gap with Raja Muda of Selangor, Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
Along the trail, interactive touchpoints encourage participants to slow down and engage with their surroundings, observe changes in the forest, learn about the wider landscape and its wildlife, and reflect on their own relationship with nature.
“What Penjaga Gunung is doing with the Orang Asli is important.
“By giving space to their knowledge and stories, we are not only appreciating the forest, but also helping to preserve the traditions, culture and relationship with nature that have been passed down through generations,” said Tengku Amir Shah.
Penjaga Gunung project leads Mohammad Afiq Tajul Ariffin and Nadine Jasmine said, “The more we understand the forest and our relationship with it, the more reason we have to care for it.”
