GEC celebrated World Wetlands Day 2011 at Raja Musa Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia on February, 26^th, Saturday. The event was jointly organised by GEC, Selangor State Government, Selangor Forestry Department and Kuala Selangor District Council.

At the same time, the event also launched a new three-year phase of the Raja Musa Forest Reserve Rehabilitation Programme which constitutes serious efforts taken by Selangor State Forestry Department and Global Environment Centre to rehabilitate more than 1000ha of degraded areas within the forest reserve through community participation.

The event started with a welcome speech from Mr Faizal Parish, Director of Global Environment Centre. In his speech, Mr. Faizal expressed his hope that the event and the rehabilitation programme will provide opportunity for public to have hands on experience on peatlands rehabilitation and will have better understanding on the importance of forest reserve to the ecosystem and humans. He also thanked all the partners and volunteers for their support and contributions.

The World Wetlands Day event was officiated by YB Elizabeth Wong, the Selangor State Exco for Environment and Tourism. Positive supports were given by the Selangor State Government when she announced that the state government will initiate a blueprint to conserve the forest in Selangor. In addition, she hoped to create a stronger trust system to protect the forests by continuous collaboration among the partners.

After the formal launching, plaque and certificate of appreciation were presented to partners and supporters of the rehabilitation programme. Among the recipients were European Unions, Bridgestone Tyre Sales Malaysia Sdn Bhd, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, Sai Care and Ecowarriors. The event was then continued with flagging off for tree planting activity. During the event, the volunteers were given hands on experience on the right technique to plant a tree and they have managed to plant as many as 800 Mahang and Tenggek Burung tree seedlings.The event ended after the tree planting activity.

The event was a great success as it not only succeeded in bringing public, local authorities and corporate bodies to work together in rehabilitation of Raja Musa forest reserve, but also in saving and respecting the environment in general.

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