The Reef-World Foundation, in partnership with Reef Check Malaysia, have announced that Green Fins Initiative materials are now available in the Bahasa language.
The move comes in the wake of the program resuming in Malaysia after it was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Providing materials in the primary local first languages aims to inspire and motivate Bahasa speakers to better protect and conserve some of the world’s best and unique coral ecosystems, according to Alvin Chelliah, the Senior Program Manager at Reef Check Malaysia:
“Many local boatmen, compressor boys, snorkel guides, divers and snorkellers aren’t fluent in English. Also, with the restarting of tourism in Malaysia, more local tourists are travelling and exploring destinations close to home. Having the Green Fins materials in Bahasa Malaysia makes it easier to get the message across to a much wider range of people that are visiting the reefs, which could have more impact on raising awareness and taking actions to protect them. We hope this will encourage more dive and snorkel operators to use them with their guests.”
While JJ Harvey, a Director at Reef-World, said:
“We’re thrilled that our educational materials are now available to Bahasa Malaysia speakers. With Green Fins being a global initiative, it’s important for us to communicate and educate as effectively as possible and translating materials into Bahasa Malaysia allows us to reach even more people than before leading to greater impact.”
Reef-World Programs Manager Samantha Craven added:
“The face-to-face environmental training sessions given by the Green Fins national teams to dive shop members in their local language are invaluable to building the environmental knowledge of their staff and crew. That’s why we’re delighted to build on this by providing our suite of tools and resources in Bahasa Malaysia to help even more marine tourism operators improve their sustainable practices.”
You can find out more about Green Fins here or download the new Bahasa language materials here.
