Biodiversity institute explores Pulau Bidong
FORTY-THREE students from the Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (Bio-D Tropika) at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) recently went on a three-day scientific expedition to Pulau Bidong off the Terengganu coastline.
Based at the Pulau Bidong research station, the participants’ goal was to carry out scientific research by exploring the hilltop areas of the island and areas rarely transversed by previous researchers.
Sahrim Ngah, assistant administrative officer at the institute, said the programme also aimed to train young researchers as well as community researchers to do field work and contribute towards the production of published books and indexed journals.
“The expedition is a continuation of a series of previous programmes conductpact ed by the institute, namely the Pulau Perhentian, Pulau Redang and Tasik Kenyir expeditions,” he added.
The Pulau Bidong expedition was conducted to obtain biodiversity data or information, and history of Vietnamese refugees who once resided on the island.
In addition, the expedition was carried out for publishing purposes as Pulau Bidong is also one of the Natural Research Centres under Bio-D Tropika research.
The programme also facilitated the process of collecting data for the publication of the Pulau Bidong book, which will complete UMT’s collection of publications on islands in Terengganu.
The expedition also saw the participation of community scientists in a move to generate talent in research activities in the fields of science and social science.