Arbor Day is a day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees.
Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.
In Malaysia, it’s celebrated on the last Friday of April.
Treat Every Environment Special (“TrEES”) Malaysia Director Leela Panikkar talks to Motherhood about the importance of educating school children on issues pertaining to the environment and their continuous efforts.
Established in 1995, TrEES promotes sustainable lifestyles in the urban community so our children can continue enjoying the benefits provided by Malaysia’s magnificent natural environment.
Question: What are some of Treat Every Environment Special (“TrEES”) latest efforts with school children?
Answer: “All of our school programmes are now online. Since the beginning of the year, we primarily focus on events such as World Pangolin Day and World Wildlife Day. Students participated in webinars and competitions including creating 3D models, posters, drawings and videos.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the number of participants that joined our webinars. Each webinar featured two talks with Malaysian wildlife experts. At the end of each session, students and teachers asked numerous questions that led to interesting discussions about Malaysia’s native wildlife and conservation efforts.
“Besides that, students also expressed their growing interest in the field and said they were grateful to be given an opportunity to interact with wildlife experts working on the ground.”
Question: Why is it important to get school children involved with environmental efforts?
Answer: “Caring about the environment and taking positive actions help instil a sense of responsibility and belonging to Mother Earth.
“By involving students with environmental efforts, they are able to connect what they learned in the classroom with real life situations.
“In fact, this is even true for adults, developing a sustainable lifestyle is a lifelong commitment – learning, experimenting, exploring and committing to increasingly sustainable practices.”
Question: Please tell us a bit about TrEES.
Answer: “Since 2011, TrEES has been running an annual school programme, Young Voices for Conservation (YV4C), for secondary schools. Through our YV4C programme, we have observed that Malaysian youth are passionate about taking environmental action when given the opportunity and guidance.
“Students engage and mobilise their school communities to participate actively in various sustainability campaigns. Their enthusiasm motivates their school community including their fellow students, school administrators, teachers, other school personnel, parents and families.”
Question: With the MCO, many projects were affected. How did TrEES manage to work around this?
Answer: “TrEES obtained permission from the Ministry of Education to run our YV4C programme online. We have been creating an online platform to enable anyone interested to participate in our programmes. We hope to have the platform up and running by the end of June 2021.
“Over the years we have established a very good working relationship with schools. We kept in touch with the key teachers and administrators throughout the MCO. Working together helped us plan and design campaign activities according to the specific needs faced by the schools. Input from school administrators and teachers helped organise our online activities.
“Engaging the students and keeping their interest in learning during this unprecedented time was our goal. While it was challenging, students were still very eager to participate in various activities to show their commitment in protecting the environment.
“Students utilised various online tools to produce posters and scrapbooks to introduce Malaysia’s wildlife species including the sunbear, clouded leopard, pangolin, gaur and orangutan. They also collected preloved clothes and produced upcycled notebooks to be donated to Orang Asli communities.”
Question: In your opinion, are Malaysian children passionate about the environment?
Answer: “Our children are passionate and inquisitive when given the opportunity and guidance in learning about the environment. Most of them are aware about the importance of protecting the environment. However, their knowledge is limited to what they learn in school. We want them to connect the importance of protecting the environment to their own daily lives and actions.
“We want to raise awareness and knowledge of our local environment, strengthening their connection and appreciation for Malaysia’s natural heritage.
“For World Wildlife Day 2021, we ran a webinar series ‘Discovering Malaysia’s Wild Beauty’. From their feedback after the webinars, students found the talks eye-opening and informative. They felt proud of Malaysia’s rich biodiversity and wanted to make positive changes in their daily lives. Some even expressed their interest in pursuing environmental studies after finishing secondary school.”
Question: Earth Day gets a lot of media attention, but Arbor Day doesn’t. How can we change that to educate the young?
Answer: “Unfortunately, Arbor Day is not widely celebrated as Earth Day and most Malaysians might not be aware of Arbor Day.
“For starters. we can start publicising Arbor Day in the mainstream media and alternative media, as well as social media. We can also organise tree planting activities to celebrate Arbor Day and invite schools to participate.”