Terengganu is a state in the north-east of Malaysia's peninsula. It's the Malay heartland alongside the state of Kelantan. A beautiful state blessed with 100's of km of white sand beaches, rain forests and an industrious people. The state has lots of hydro energy, gas and oil fields offshore. A state so blessed with resources, with only 1 million people may have been able to save the leatherback turtle, but alas the conservation of the species failed.
As a teenager, I witnessed a leatherback turtle landing, and was incredibly moved by the labour it took for her to deposit her eggs in the soft sandy shores. The first generation of Malaysian leaders (Razak, Hussien Onn, & Abdul Rahman) were conservation minded and instituted a turtle conservation program, which was sadly neglected under Mahathir's time. The laws were in place to protect turtle , but the public was never educated on the need to conserve the species. As a result turtle eggs were found in markets, and fisherman nets with meshes too fine would capture those that made it to the sea.
Today the country rich heritage is under assault again. The rain forest in Malaysia is under threat from palm oil plantations that threaten to turn the whole country into a mono-cultural wasteland. Laying barren, the rich biodiversity that exists in Malaysia's rainforest. There will not only be no more turtles, but no more elephants, tigers and tapirs.
The high cost of crude and the short sighted opportunity to export palm oil based bio-diesel together with the lack of foresight of many of Malaysia's leaders is at the root of this problem. There is some hope though, the Terengganu state leadership has embraced the moving its people into the creative sector (animation etc), to build new industries based on innovation and human creativity. I hope it works, otherwise Terengganu will resemble the mess that the other states have become in Malaysia.
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