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Friday, July 8, 2011

Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival to be more eco-friendly this year

KUCHING: The ‘Tree Planting’ ceremony yesterday at Damai Central marked the Sarawak Tourism Board’s (STB) first serious bid into creating a greener, more eco-friendly Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF 2011).

Though over the years we have taken small steps like encouraging the use of recyclable material at the venue, we felt that this year, we should make it bigger. – Datuk Rashid Khan, STB chief executive officer

“Though over the years we have taken small steps like encouraging the use of recyclable material at the venue, we felt that this year, we should make it bigger,” said chief executive officer of STB Datuk Rashid Khan at the opening of the ceremony.

“We thus came up with the idea of planting trees in line with the government’s aspiration of planting 26 million trees over a five year period from 2010 to 2014.”

Held at the recently launched Damai Central multi-complex, 1,000 seedlings consisting of both hardwood and exotic species were donated by Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) in support of their ‘Greening Project’.

Samariang assemblywoman Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, who came on behalf of State Tourism and Heritage Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, graced the ceremony.

“Our efforts would go some way to balance the carbon footprint from RWMF,” Rashid said, adding that this initiative was also extended to the use of green products and practices at the festival, including STB’s eco-friendly web-hosting provider.

With the world’s increasing focus towards reducing carbon footprints, Rashid stated that part of STB’s concern took into consideration the impact of RWMF which brings in thousands of festival goers every year.

As such, STB is preparing a carbon footprint that will examine the environmental degradation, waste management and other green issues affected by major music festivals such as Borneo Jazz Festival and RWMF.

Waste management from disposables like food containers is a major concern for the event organiser.

“One of the conditions we put this year was that food vendors could not use non-biodegradable materials. We hope that those vendors who have been given contracts to trade at the RWMF will adhere to the agreement.”

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