Give Scholarships for the Best to Take Up Biodiversity Studies

By S.S.

I SHARE the concern expressed by J.N. Bull of the University of Plymouth (“Learn from UK’s bad experience” – NST, June 27).

I have had first-hand experience of Malaysia’s education system. It suffers from want of emphasis on training its people on biodiversity conservation and environmental management.

When I was in school, I was passionate about nature and environmental issues but was never given counselling on the career prospects in my area of interest.

As a result, it did not occur to me that I could make a living out of it.

I did well enough in my studies to receive a Public Service Department scholarship to study in the United Kingdom, taking up Bachelor of Science in biotechnology.

I took up biotechnology not because I was interested in it but because it was the closest thing I could find to biodiversity and conservation.

There was a long list of courses offered under the scholarship scheme but none was in biodiversity conservation or environmental management.

After I graduated, I returned to Malaysia and started working in a biotechnology company but did not find it to my liking.

It took me several years and a meandering route before I ended up doing what I like. I had a stint in an agricultural research company before landing a job with a non-governmental conservation organisation.

In the process, I had to retrain myself in biodiversity conservation. I am not an isolated case as some of my past and present colleagues also went through similar experiences.

The situation has improved somewhat as I now see more local graduates in conservation biology, marine biology and related disciplines.

However, I doubt if the PSD and other scholarship providers such as Mara, Tenaga Nasional, Petronas and Telekom Malaysia have included such subjects in their scholarship programmes.

This is a serious oversight as it is important that we attract the best brains to take up these subjects.

It is sad that these subjects are seen to be inferior to courses such as engineering, medicine, law and accounting.

They are equally demanding in terms of their intellectual content and are relevant to Malaysia as we are one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.

Our policy-makers are fond of saying this but, unfortunately, they don’t realise that having a rich biodiversity also means that we need to allocate financial and human resources to manage our forests, seas and freshwater.

In many developed countries, there are environmental or biodiversity officers in local authorities, town and country planning departments and agencies related to the management of land, coastal areas, rivers and waterways.

Sadly, this has yet to happen in Malaysia.

Being one of the 12 countries with the most biodiversity in the world, we should also be among the countries with the highest number of biodiversity and environmental professionals per capita.

There should even be a biodiversity adviser to the prime minister.

We need people who are well versed in biodiversity and environmental matters to be involved at the planning phase of development projects.

S.S.

Lausanne, Switzerland

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