UMS and World Ocean Day

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) celebrates the World Ocean Day by promoting awareness of the ocean through its launching of ‘Ocean Outreach Corner’ and the information bulletin ‘Ocean: Facts & Views’.

According to the vice chancellor Datuk Dr Mohd Harun Abdullah, with ocean governance taking a centre stage of the world attention today, knowledge management should be the focus to support the quest for innovation in dealing with issues related to ocean ecosystem in a changing climate.

He said the ‘Ocean Outreach Corner’ will provide very useful information to the visitor as they will not only see and admire the beauty of the underwater life but also gain knowledge of the marine world.

Dr Harun also praised the efforts of UMS Borneo Marine Research Institute in producing the information bulletin ‘Ocean: Facts & Views’ for public viewing.

“I have been made to understand this bulletin contains facts about oceans and thought-provoking views of our scientists which are original and intended to provoke serious thinking, and with powerful carry home message,” said Dr Harun in his speech when launching the UMS World Ocean Day 2013 at UMS Marine Aquarium & Museum here yesterday.

The speech was read by the director of UMS Research Centre & Innovation Professor Dr Felix Tongkul.

He added that if scientists, the corporate sector and the journalists can champion the cause of oceans and their importance in combating the effect of climate change, the collective efforts will succeed in bringing the society on board.

“By studying the ocean and exploring our links with this massive ecosystem, we can learn our close connection and gain better understanding of how our activities can have a positive or negative impact on the ocean.

“The ocean is the largest carbon sink on Earth but little attention has been paid to the coastal and marine ecosystems in addressing the climate mitigation towards this end,” he said.

Additionally, Harun said that the fact that so much of knowledge about the ocean that we claim to know looks so little when it comes to managing it, should make us think of the vastness and complexity of the oceans.

“We are all connected to the oceans no matter where we live and where we breathe. We need to appreciate what ocean means to all of us and what we need to do to protect it.

“Caring for the sea that gives us so much is an obligation for the whole world. The ocean takes 71 per cent of the earth surface and it also makes our living possible on this planet,” he said.

Meanwhile, the deputy director & coordinator of Eco-Campus Programme, Associate Professor Dr Rossita Shapawi said that UMS will hold several activities in conjunction of the World Ocean Day which include the signing of a pledge and the ‘Ocean We Want’ essay contest result announcement besides the launching of UMS information bulletin ‘Ocean: Facts & Views’ and the opening of the ‘Ocean Outreach Corner’.

She said through the interactive events and strong messages, UMS will try its level best to generate public awareness of the oceans and need to conserve this vital ecosystem, especially the marine biodiversity.

“Marine biodiversity is an asset of vital importance to economic activities such as seafood security and marine ecotourism.

“Our decision to open the informative ‘Ocean Outreach Corner’ is essentially to disseminate information on the plight of the oceans and need for intensive research, training and conservation and sustainable development activities,” said Dr Rossita.

Besides information panels, the ‘Ocean Outreach Corner’ will provide interactive learning materials and sculptures and cut-outs depicting the biodiversity of the coral reef ecosystems of Sabah were set up for the visitors.

She added that the information bulletin contains scientific facts about oceans and UMS views in ocean-related issues so pertinent that these need to be taken seriously in this 21st century.

“The importance of oceans cannot be overstated. Their complexity surpasses the complexity of all other ecosystem. It is the complexity which is an element of stability and a bulwark against the impacts as powerful as climate change,” she said.

Also present was director of Borneo Marine Research Institute Professor Dr Saleem Mustafa.

Source: New Sabah Times

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UMS aims to become a ‘Low Carbon City’

In line with the government’s aspiration to reduce the carbon footprint by 40 per cent in 2020, more than 60 per cent of the land area in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is made up of landscaping plants and natural forests to allow for the natural absorption of carbon.

UMS vice chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Mohd Harun Abdullah said the carbon absorption process would make UMS to be known as a ‘Low Carbon City’ since each road is surrounded with shady trees.

In addition to this effort, the School of International Tropical Forestry (SPTA) at UMS has started stocking and absorption of carbon by tree planting in the university grounds since 2006.

The forest and agricultural trees were planted as carbon absorbers, not only serving as Plants Bank but also used as learning and teaching location besides being a source of income for SPTA. Meanwhile, the agro-forestry at SPTA was seen as a model for sustainable development.

SPTA was praised for its courageous move in choosing Dryobalanops lanceolata (or pokok kapur paji in Malay) as the school’s official tree. Pokok kapur form the rainforest tree community that contributed to Sabah’s economic development in the early 80s whereby Sabah exported logs as construction material to Japan and Europe. However, as the number of pokok kapur is on a decline, the awareness of its importance in terms of economic value and ecosystem function drove SPTA to choose pokok kapur.

Harun also added that in 2012, all first-year students planted their own ‘foster tree’ as a symbolic gesture during the orientation week.

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Seven UMS lecturers to join five-year study on monkey bar

Photo: acutemed.co.uk

Kota Kinabalu: Seven senior lecturers from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) have been appointed as research collaborators for a five-year project which will focus on research sites in Sabah and Palawan Island, the Philippines to determine the risk factors for the spread of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria in humans. 

The research project will comprise two phases that will cover clinical monitoring of the number of cases of P. knowlesi together with a case control study in Sabah and large scale epidemiological survey, mathematical model development and analysis. 

The research consortium grant for this project has been awarded under the call "Environmental and Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases (ESEI)." 

ESEI is a joint initiative between the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBRSRC) as part of the Living with Environmental Change programme. 

A UMS statement said Sabah has the highest number of cases of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria, also known as monkey bar, in South East Asia, as evidenced by the recent description of a significant cluster of human P. knowlesi in the Kudat district. 

According to Dr B Singh from Malaria Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, the natural host for P. knowlesi in Malaysia are long-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques and banded leaf monkeys. 

These two species of macaques are the most common non-human primate species found in Malaysia and have been noted to harbour five species of plasmodium. 

In his article 'Plasmodium knowlesi in Malaysia, Dr Singh said human can acquire knowlesi malaria when they visit the forest habitat of macaques and the mosquito vectors, while the vast majority of knowlesi malaria cases occur in adults. 

The report said, plasmodium knowlesi, a simian malaria parasite, is now recognised as the fifth cause of human malaria and can lead to fatal infections in human. 

P. knowlesi was first isolated in 1931 from a long-tailed macaque imported to India from Singapore, while the early experiments were mainly conducted by Knowles and Das Gupta. 

The two observed that P. knowlesi causes symptomatic and low level parasitaemia in its natural host, the long-tailed macaque, but is lethal for Indian rhesus macaques, the report said. 

Meanwhile, a two-day international malaria symposium will be held in Kota Kinabalu on April 16 and 17, featuring internationally renowned prominent malaria scientists. 

According to UMS, the symposium was to provide a forum for discussion about the latest findings on malaria research as well as to foster co-operation among malariologists and hopefully lead to future collaborative research. 

Source: Daily Express

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