Flying high: Nurzhafarina (left) and Nur Munira showing off their awards.
PETALING JAYA: Two Malaysian conservationists were honoured with the Outstanding Malaysian Nature Conservationist Award 2025 at the Biji Alam Awards.
This year’s award disbursed RM35,000 each to Dr Nur Munira Azman, founder of the Shorebirds Peninsular Malaysia Project (SPMP), and Dr Nurzhafarina Othman, founder of Seratu Aatai.
SPMP is an independent volunteer-led group dedicated to the conservation of migratory shorebirds found along the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast in Seberang Perai, Penang.
As for Seratu Aatai, it is dedicated to the protection of Bornean elephants in Sabah’s Lower Kinabatangan area.
The Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda (TAT-KM) site is a critical wintering site along the recognised East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) route used by an estimated 50 million birds that make this months-long odyssey from Alaska to New Zealand annually.
This critical coastal wetland area provides a habitat for many other species such as otters, monkeys and crabs and act as a nursery for marine life.
The Biji Alam award will fund Nur Munira and SPMP’s continued shorebird monitoring and data collection, promote outreach events and provide workshops on eco-tourism for the local fishing community, as well as support an application to get the TAT-KM site officially recognised as a flyway site by the EAAF Partnership, an international body working to protect the route.
A biologist and lecturer at UPSI, Nur Munira specialises in ornithology and wetland conservation, focusing on shorebird research, multistakeholder wetland management and science-based community engagement.
She has been involved in and contributed to national and regional conservation initiatives, and has actively collaborated with various organisations and agencies for biodiversity education and habitat protection.
“The fearless spirit of migrating shorebirds – that’s the spirit that lives in me,” Nur Munira said in a statement announcing the award.
With fewer than 1,500 Bornean elephants left in the wild, the species continues to be threatened, with 12 of them killed last year, likely an outcome of human-elephant conflict as their habitat continues to be displaced by plantations.
For example, in the Lower Kinabatangan area, where 250 elephants live, only 10% of natural forests remain, say researchers.
“This closeness brings (not just) challenges but also opportunities to create new ways of living together. Protecting elephants is about ensuring that people and wildlife can share the same landscapes in harmony,” said Nurzhafarina, a senior lecturer at the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, who leads a team of 15 Sabahans.
Seratu Aatai works with communities, farmers and plantation workers to promote understanding of elephant behaviour through education, dialogue and practical, science-based solutions, strengthening the foundation for pathways that allow elephants to move freely between habitats while easing pressure on local communities.
With support from the Sabah Wildlife Department and fellow scientists and conservationists, Seratu Aatai’s mission now is to encourage oil palm landscapes to become more wildlife-friendly.
The Biji Alam award will expand Seratu Aatai’s training programmes for plantation workers and their families when the encounter elephants, which is crucial for gaining better cooperation from plantation companies.
Established in 2024, the Biji Alam Awards are spearheaded by civil society activists and subject matter experts to create a platform to support the exemplary efforts of Malaysia’s mid-career conservationists.
Last year’s winners were Dr Yap Jo-Leen for her Langur Project Penang, which aims to promote human-primate coexistence in urban areas, and Assoc Prof Dr Chong Ju Lian for protecting Sunda pangolins in Malaysia.
