Sabah's First NATURE Gathering took place recently at the Hotel Lab FPEP, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Over 70 people from various nature-related NGOs in Sabah and individual conservationists and grant providers convened at the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Accountancy at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) on August 28th. The event was jointly organized by the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), 1StopBorneo Wildlife, and the Borneo Tourism Research Center (BTRC) of UMS. 

The main objective of the event was to convene nature lovers working to protect Sabah's natural terrestrial and marine treasures to get to know each other's work with a view to future collaboration. It was an opportunity to meet new people and renew contact with the people who knew each other before. Potential new ideas and partnerships were discussed during the gathering providing a platform for the smaller and newer NGOs to highlight their work and get connected with others. Participants were given 5 to 10 minutes to present their work and contributions to Sabah.

Our Stop Fish Bombing Malaysia Director, Terence Lim took the opportunity to showcase to the participating NGOs our work and progress. This generated a lot of questions during the Q&A session. 

People from far and wide attended the event and even supporters from Brunei Darussalam arrived just to attend this event.

Dr Hjh Yatela Zainal Abidin, CEO of Yayasan Sime Darby, could not attend in person but sent in a personal video. She highlighted that many of the projects they support are in Sabah and they have already invested millions of ringgit in Sabah nature conservation and they hope to continue to do so. Jessica Lee of Mandai Nature from Singapore supported the event and also sent in a video.

Organizations that participated include:

Borneo Rhino Alliance (Bringing Back Our Rare Animals)

WWF Malaysia

1StopBorneo Wildlife

Stop Fish Bombing Malaysia

South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership

Sabah Birdwatchers Association

Orangutan Appeal UK

Earth Worm Foundation

Mandai Nature

Pangolin Aware

Borneo Gibbon Rehabilitation Project

Yayasan Sime Darby

One Ocean Empire

Kinabalu Birdwing

Forever Sabah

Journey with Dee Dee 

Panthera

Tanjung Aru Marine Ecosystems

Rhino and Forest Fund

Malaysian Primatological Society