Protecting the Kenyir Watershed through Sustainable Financing Mechanisms
Kenyir For Life Project is an initiative led by Rimba (a Malaysian not-for-profit research group) that aims to generate alternative revenue streams from standing forests to expand protection of the 200,000 hectares (~500,000 acres) Kenyir watershed. The watershed is rich in biodiversity, harbouring at least 43 mammal species and more than 290 bird species. It also provides local communities with important ecosystem services such as the provision of drinking water, flood mitigation, erosion control, and fisheries resources. Since 2016, Rimba has engaged the Terengganu State government to improve forest management within the site and in 2018 the state demonstrated political will to forego logging revenue and gazetted 30,000 hectares Kenyir State Park. The next key step is to raise sustainable financing to manage the state park and expand protection to the greater watershed. To achieve this, Rimba created a new entity called Nature Based Solutions to channel investments from the private sector into the Kenyir watershed to create sustainable outcomes and assist companies meet their ESG/sustainability commitments. The team looks forward to sharing our current progress and engaging the CFA network to further strengthen our business case and discover new opportunities and ideas as well.