Environment
Conserve Our Rainforests: Plant-A-Tree
Everyday, worldwide, trees are cut down, forests are damaged … nature is slowly making way for man. As a result, our resources are slowly depleting.
Conserve Our Rainforests: Plant-A-Tree with an acronym ‘CORPAT’ is a project conceived by Soroptimist International Club of Bangsar (SI Bangsar) and launched on 22 June 2000 to mark our contribution towards greening of the environment in collaboration with our project partners, Sitrac Corporation Sdn Bhd, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) and the Forestry Department of Pahang.
The Objectives are:
- To create awareness on the importance of the rainforests.
- To educate and advocate nature conservation through the project.
- To raise funds to further enhance the environment.
- To assist the communities.
Tropical rainforests are considered one of the oldest rainforests in the world. It is a storehouse for a great diversity of plants and animals resources. This eco-system is extremely fragile, once disturbed and damaged, it may take a lifetime or longer to recover.
Project Site
The Project site is at Tanarimba Janda Baik, Bukit Tinggi in the state of Pahang, is 45 minutes’ drive from Kuala Lumpur City Centre. Phase 1 of the CORPAT was about Knowing Our Rainforests i.e. to plant 60 indigenous rainforest species in a designated plot of land located next to the Visitor Centre of Tanarimba Janda Baik. These trees are to be closely monitored and to be used to educate the public about trees in the tropical rainforest.
How do you contribute?
By adopting (by way of donation) and planting an indigenous rainforest tree for yourself, your family, loved ones or, even for your community. For each adoption, an information kit about the tree will be given. Each tree will be tagged for identification.
A minimum donation of RM500 per each adoption, in the form of cash/cheque to be made payable to Soroptimist International Club of Bangsar. The tree donor selects from any one of the 6 rainforest species i.e. Kapur, Keladan, Jelutong, Karas, Kempas and Merawan Siput Jantan.
Participants of this project will receive a Certificate of Adoption. A permanent directory record of the project has been planned by SICB members near to the project site. Donors are welcome to visit the site to monitor the progress of the trees.
Project Partners
SI Bangsar would not have been able to embark on such task without the three project partners:
- Sitrac Corporation Sdn. Bhd. who has agreed to sponsor the land for the Project
- Forestry Department Pahang who has endorsed the project and has provided seedlings and labour for planting; and
- Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) who has agreed to provide the expertise through their various research units and also will provide special seedlings for this project.
All the three project partners have promised to give their full support and assistance to make this special pilot project a success.
“This is not an easy task but will definitely be the first time for a women NGO to embark on such meaningful project” as challenged by the Director General of FRIM, Datuk Dr. Abdul Razak Mohd Ali.
From launch until now
Every effort has been made to ensure that the project site will be a permanent feature to be enjoyed not just for this generation but for the future generations too. To this end, Sitrac Corporation Sdn Bhd has been maintaining and monitoring the growth of the trees since the trees were planted until now.
Since the launch of CORPAT on 22 June 2000, we have planted about 70 indigenous rainforest trees at the project site and have received a substantial amount of donation from the tree donors.
