When Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia co-founder Chen Pelf Nyok first heard of the declining river terrapin populations from human activity in local rivers in 2004, she knew that something had to be done to save them from extinction.
Her undying love for the reptiles led her to uncover the brutal reality faced by southern river terrapins in the Kemaman river whose eggs were relentlessly poached by local villagers to be sold and eaten as food.
The Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024, an annual award by The Star that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
For more SGHA videos, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/
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Her undying love for the reptiles led her to uncover the brutal reality faced by southern river terrapins in the Kemaman river whose eggs were relentlessly poached by local villagers to be sold and eaten as food.
The Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024, an annual award by The Star that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
For more SGHA videos, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Pelf and I'm from Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia.
00:04We are the winner of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024.
00:21Working closely with the local community is a main component
00:25of the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia.
00:29We visited the society space at Kampung Pasir Gajah in Kemaman recently
00:33to see how they transformed the villages there into guardians of the endangered river terrapins.
00:39The guardians, or fondly referred as Geng Tuntung, conduct river patrols
00:44looking for terrapins trapped in fishing nets or wounded by hooks and other objects.
00:49They then bring the terrapins back to their centre for rehabilitation.
01:03They cover a stretch of five kilometres of the Kemaman River
01:07which they say is inhabited by approximately 235 adult river terrapins.
01:12The society's co-founder, Dr Chan Pelf Yoke, told us that the villagers' involvement
01:23and their regular patrols had saved many river terrapins.
01:27From day one, we wanted to involve the local communities because we wanted them to take
01:32ownership of the project. We wanted them to feel like they are a part of the conservation project
01:38and this is not something that a scientist comes into their village to do and then leave.
01:43We wanted to demonstrate to them that we are partners in conservation.
01:47One case that I remember very clearly is that when the patrol team went out into the river,
01:54they found a male river terrapin that got caught in a hook. It was a very big hook.
02:01We were fortunate that we were able to catch that in time,
02:04otherwise that male terrapin would have died.
02:07Between January and March, the terrapin guardians and the society's workers
02:11will also go to nesting banks along the river where they collect eggs laid by the female terrapins.
02:37We have been working on the conservation of river terrapins since 2011 and what we do is that we
02:56collect river terrapin eggs from nesting banks. We bring them back to a hatchery so that we can
03:03safely incubate the eggs and when these hatchlings emerge, we raise them for a few months before we
03:09release them into the Kemamang River. The society said through their engagement, educational and
03:15awareness programs, they have successfully educated local villagers who used to be terrapin
03:21egg poachers to protect the endangered reptiles. Over the past 13 years, their efforts have seen
03:27the incubation and release of over 5,000 terrapins back into the river. This year alone,
03:33they collected and incubated a record high of more than 1,500 eggs and they held their annual
03:39carnivore-like Terrapin Independence Day event where visitors and locals released 670 baby
03:45terrapins into the river on October 5th. This is significant to us because the river terrapins
03:51lay only about 25 to 35 eggs each time. So for us to be able to collect 1,500 eggs, that is
04:00quite a monumental effort. It is a day to show our appreciation to the local terrapin guardians
04:05who have been working so hard to collect these eggs and for us to incubate them. So it is a day
04:11for the orang kampung to come out and celebrate terrapins. Since 2019, local women have also been
04:18empowered through the Society's Creative Sewing Programme where they are paid to produce terrapin
04:23themed batik merchandise to be sold to visitors and online. The Society hopes to one day expand
04:29its operations and set up similar conservation centres elsewhere to protect populations of other
04:35critically endangered freshwater turtles. Happy 10th anniversary to the Star Golden Hearts Award!
04:48you