17 September 2018

Maybank Recognised Internationally for Tiger Conservation

Maybank Group, through its corporate responsibility arm, Maybank Foundation brought home a Green World Environment Award in the global campaign to find the world’s greenest countries, companies and communities in a glittering ceremony at the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation, Ankara, Turkey on 17th September 2018.

Maybank Foundation’s critically acclaimed tiger conservation programme secured the Global Gold in the Green Practices category, marking significant mileage for the Group to move towards sustainable development.

The Global Gold trophy was received by Mr. Ahmad Faezal Mohamed, Head of CR and Maybank Foundation Secretariat. With this achievement, Maybank has joined Konica Minolta, Audi, Vauxhall, British Petroleum, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Royal Bank of Scotland, Siemens and Shell, among others as the winners of the Green World Awards since its inception in 1994.

As a result of this success, Maybank has been invited to have the winning paper published in The Green Book (the leading international work of reference on environmental best practice) as the reference for others to learn from our experience and follow our lead to benefit themselves and the generations to come.

Maybank will be further honoured at the Green World Ambassador Award ceremony at the Houses of Parliament, Palace of Westminster, London on 12 November 2018 to recognise Maybank Foundation’s achievement in inculcating green practices in its mission of Humanising Financial Services.

The Strengthening Tiger Conservation in the Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex

Maybank Foundation and WWF-Malaysia have partnered in their efforts to conserve tigers in the Belum-Temenggor Forest Reserve, a priority site for Malayan tigers as outlined in the National Tiger Conservation Action Plan. Maybank Foundation had invested RM1.2 million for the first year of the four-year project. RM5.12 million has been allocated for this partnership starting from 2016, subject to annual review of the results.

3 core strategies have been defined:

Protection

• Introduce SMART patrolling in Royal Belum State Park and Temenggor Forest Reserve to ensure comprehensive protection of the Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex.
• Advocate for greater effectiveness in protecting Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex by introducing the minimum protected area standards for tigers.

Monitoring

• Monitor the population of Malayan tigers and its preys to evaluate if the number of individuals change.
• Improve knowledge on the tigers and their preys to better understand the best possible course of action.

Community Engagement

• Increase communities’ awareness and participation in anti-poaching initiatives.
• Develop potential sustainable livelihood revenue generation model to reducing the community dependencies on natural resources from tiger habitat.

As of 2018, as a result of this programme, 5,347 km of dense forest has been covered by foot patrol. 177 wire snares have been successfully deactivated, thereby potentially saving 177 large animals scouring the forest complex including Malayan tigers and its preys. 498 old snares, 93 old mist nets, 23 hunting hides and 26 bullet shells are all among the items recovered on-site. 83 wildlife crime cases were reported to PERHILITAN where 41 cases were acted upon.

A significant achievement of this programme was obtaining the Perak State Government’s firm commitment to support tiger conservation in the Belum-Temenggor Forest Reserve. On Global Tiger Day which was on 29 July 2017, the Perak State Government announced its commitment to register for the “Conservation Assured Tiger Standard” (CA I TS), “CA I TS” is an internationally accepted accreditation scheme to ensure every aspect needed for effective conservation within a set area.

According to the CEO of Maybank Foundation, Shahril Azuar Jimin, through this programme, Maybank aims to help conserve the declining number of Malayan tiger individuals in Belum-Temenggor Forest Reserve as a part of its effort in preserving a living heritage. Shahril further added that this programme is also in accordance with the 15th goal of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and position Malaysia strongly as one of only 12 tiger range countries left in the world.