The Nippon Foundation, JMA to Send Japanese Student Volunteers to Malaysia to Plant 100,000 Trees Over 10 Years

The Nippon Foundation Volunteer Center and the Japan Malaysia Association (JMA) have decided to dispatch Japanese student volunteers to Malaysia for a decade-long reforestation project with an eye to rejuvenating critical orangutan habitat.

The decision was welcomed and endorsed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Mr. Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC), when I met with them in Kuala Lumpur on November 10 and 9, respectively. The meeting was also joined by JMA President Takakazu Ogawa and Executive Director Takashi Moribayashi.

We plan to send groups of 15 students for two weeks, four times a year, aiming to plant a total of 100,000 trees over a decade in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, home to the world’s largest protected orangutan population. The first and second cohorts will conduct planting activities in February and March 2024, respectively.

I told the prime minister and the NRECC minister that the project aims to give Japanese students firsthand experience of Borneo’s history and tropical rainforest issues such as biodiversity through volunteer tree planting.

We also hope to involve Malaysian students in these activities to promote exchanges between Japanese and Malaysian students. Minister Nik Nazmi said he is willing to cooperate.

Briefing Malaysian media on the reforestation project, I said: “The tropical rainforests in Borneo continue to decline and many living creatures, including orangutans, are losing their homes. One of the factors contributing to the issue is deforestation and lack of trees.”

With a network extending to 110 universities across Japan, The Nippon Foundation Volunteer Center, The Nippon Foundation’s partner organization, has begun inviting students to apply to take part in the planting project in Malaysia.

Since 1995, JMA has planted over 800,000 trees in Sarawak to restore tropical forests in collaboration with the Sarawak state government, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and local communities.