Happy New Year everyone!
It is the time of the year I am writing this New Year
message to all of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre's friends, fans,
supporters, and family, to wish all of you a very happy new year!
This New Year is the year of hope that is full of positive
energy for BSBCC! Since the pandemic started in 2020, BSBCC has experienced a
very challenging three years in 2020, 2021, and 2022 for obvious reasons – the
world "locked down" due to the COVID-19 pandemic that lasted for
almost three years. This was by far our most challenging time as the main
source of revenue was cut off after the country lockdown and tourism ceased.
Thanks to our generous funders Yayasan Sime Darby, Yayasan Hasanah, and many
others, we managed to pull through the hard times until tourism made a recovery
in early 2023.
The return of the tourists from across the world was
overwhelming. In 2023, 77,426 visitors visited BSBCC, among them 49,814 are
foreign tourists. This surge in the number of visitors gave us hope as BSBCC
has been heavily dependent on revenue generated from ticketing and souvenir
selling since we opened to the public in 2014. Together with funding support
from the Sime Darby Foundation, Hasanah Foundation, and other funding agencies
and partners, we have made several achievements and improvements to our facilities.
In 2023 Sabah Wildlife Department rescued two sun bear cubs,
Tenom and Kwong, and later sent them to BSBCC for rehabilitation and care.
Although we never felt happy to receive the cubs because it meant the brutal
killing of the cub's mothers by the poachers, we were glad that we could at
least take good care of the cubs and help them have a second chance to live in
the forest. The rescue of Tenom has led us to kick-start the Tabin Sun Bear
Project in August 2023 by establishing a forest camp for soon-to-be Tenom's
rehabilitation program and long-term ecological research on wild sun bears in
Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Tabin Sun Bear Project is a long-term field-based
program for rehabilitation, research, and anti-poaching. This satellite project
of BSBCC will for sure increase our ability to conduct sun bear rehabilitation
and the understanding of wild sun bears.
At BSBCC, 2023 was a busy year after the return of the
visitors in full swing. We experienced "revenge tourism" after almost
three years of lockdown. All of our ticketing & shopkeeper team,
environmental education team, and myself were busy welcoming the visitor each
day, especially during the peak seasons. Our Environmental Education team was
also busy conducting their education program both at BSBCC and outreach
programs across various schools in Sabah. A total of 63 school groups (2,400
individuals) visited the centre and the team managed to conduct outreach
programs in 10 schools that reached 1,584 individuals. We also started the
construction of the new Gelugob bridge at the entrance of BSBCC to replace the
old Gelugob bridge which has started to go down after being used for the past
14 years. The construction of the new bridge was just completed in
mid-December. We will launch the new bridge on 16th January 2024 and celebrate
the 10th anniversary of BSBCC open to the public. Everyone is invited to join the
official launch on 16th January!
Besides the construction of the new Gelugob Bridge, we also
have several construction projects that we plan for 2024. During this New Year,
we plan to construct an entrance foyer to welcome visitors and make the
entrance of BSBCC to be more visible to the public to enhance visitation
numbers. Then, the old ironwood fences of Pen B, Pen C, and Pen D require
upgrading and minor expansion with a chain-link fence. The New Year is also the
year for us to fundraise and build our 3rd Observation Platform to improve
visitors' experience. If we are lucky, we also wish to start fundraising for
the construction of the new Interpretation Centre and Office Building in 2025
to improve our visitors' experience and provide better workspace for our
growing team, especially with additional team members for the 10-year Sabah Sun
Bear Action Plan, which we hope to launch in this new year.
Dear supporters, fans, and friends, BSBCC is entering its
16th year because of your help and support in many ways. BSBCC was my big dream
for the little sun bears when I first had the idea to create a conservation
centre for sun bears in 2004 after seeing so many sad captive sun bears on my
survey of captive sun bears in Malaysia. It was an ambitious plan to found it
in 2008 with spiritual support from Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry
Department, and LEAP. We later turn the spiritual support into actions to raise
funds and solve obstacles to build BSBCC from scraps. Thankfully more help and
support are coming along the journey. Besides the three partners who helped me
to establish BSBCC, other important funders such as the Ministry of Tourism,
Arts and Culture of Malaysia, Sabah State Ministry of Tourism, Culture and
Environment, Malaysia Ministry of Finance, Sime Darby Foundation, Hasanah
Foundation, and many others. In 2023 we received additional financial support
from Paradise Wildlife Park, being recognized by the prestigious Gamuda
Inspiration Award and Star Golden Hearts Award with a total cash price of
RM165,000. Beside financial supports, I am also grateful to all of BSBCC staff,
interns and volunteers to make all of the works possible on site. Your support
is the reason for us to keep doing our good work to help the sun bears in Sabah
and other parts of Southeast Asia.
We have high hopes for 2024 to achieve many goals to
conserve sun bears and other wildlife. However, we also know the new challenges
of global climatic change, the two ongoing wars, and the challenging world
economy are developing as we speak. BCBCC always stays optimistic to face these
challenges, just like what we have been through during the COVID-19 pandemic
years. I strongly believe the hardship during the pandemic years will make us
stronger, as long as we stay optimistic!
Happy New Year everyone! Let's pray for a better year in
2024 and world peace! Let's hope we can respect each other regardless of race,
nationality, religion, and species. We only have one Earth, there is no planet
B! Let's work together to make humans happy, and eventually, wildlife and
animals will be happy too in this New Year!
Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. (Hon.) Wong Siew Te, D.J.N.
Founder and C.E.O
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