Editor’s note: Today’s post comes from Faedzul Rahman, Marine Conservation Manager of the Malaysian Nature Society

A stunning diversity of marine life lives along Malaysia’s coastline. But as our economy grows, our coastal landscapes and jungles are being cleared, suffering vast deterioration. It isn’t easy to see how this coastal degradation is impacting nature, but the damage is immense. Our coral reefs are dying, turtles no longer lay eggs on our shores, and the mangrove forests are shrinking.

Our latest project, Paddle for Nature, is dedicated to helping people see all this. We’re creating a digital record of Peninsular Malaysia’s coastline as it stands today to benchmark how our actions affect the coastline tomorrow. We’ll be taking panoramic images along 2,000 kilometers of this coastline using a kayak specially outfitted with Google’s Street View Trekker. Hari Raju, our lone Malaysian Nature Society kayaker, hits the waters today in Pengkalan Kubor, Kelantan and will paddle onwards around the islands of Perhentian, Tioman and Penang, and all the way to Kuala Perlis before concluding the journey in Langkawi.
[Image] Using the Trekker camera system, we’ll gather comprehensive photographs and data about the coastline’s ecologically important sites, which may also be helpful to government agencies, other environmental organizations and interested parties in their efforts to protect Malaysia’s marine life. We are grateful to the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry for their endorsement.

Once the Street View imagery is ready to share, we hope it will help people take stock of what our landscapes look like now, and become more aware of the impact coastal destruction has on our economy and ecology, the livelihood of coastal communities and the variety of wildlife whose habitat is linked to these coastal areas. We also hope that through the Paddle for Nature journey, we here at the Malaysian Nature Society can learn more about what we can do next to help, whether from the many local heroes who are already taking action or through experiencing the open coast ourselves by kayak.


The 2,000 km route around Peninsular Malaysia
Posted by Faedzul Rahman, Marine Conservation Manager, Malaysian Nature Society