Tengah Island Conservation in the news

OCTOBER 30, 2025 | BERNAMA

The red plastic pirouettes in the wind, eluding desperate hands that reach to catch it before it drifts too far out to sea. But it’s too late. A sudden gust lifts the bag high, sending it gliding gracefully away from the jetty before it comes to rest upon the island’s turquoise waters.

While plastic bags floating in the sea are always an unwelcome sight, they feel especially out of place here at Pulau Besar — also known as Pulau Babi Besar.  The waters are part of the Sultan Iskandar Marine Park and littering, especially anything plastic with its centuries-long shelf life, is prohibited. The plastic bag is now marine debris, destined to drift under the surface where it may entangle wildlife like turtles and the dugong, causing them to drown or starve, or poisoning them.

Although the marine park looks pristine at first glance, conservationists say it was only because of regular clean-up efforts. The waste and marine debris problem in the waters surrounding Malaysia is severe, according to experts.

OCTOBER 25, 2025 | SCOOP

KUALA LUMPUR — Heritage in Malaysia is often viewed through the lens of monuments, crafts and cuisine. Nature, though intertwined with heritage, seldom takes centre stage. 

Out of six United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage Sites in the country, only two – Kinabalu Park and Gunung Mulu National Park are recognised for their natural value.

One important but often overlooked national narrative is Malaysia’s maritime heritage, the stories of the seas that surround it, islands and the communities that once thrived along its coasts.

Despite being a maritime nation positioned between the busy Straits of Melaka and the South China Sea, Malaysia’s island culture and heritage remain underexplored. 

The origins, traditions, and livelihoods of coastal and island communities are fading, as development and migration steadily erode traditional skills and ways of life. The flora, fauna, marine life and aquatic plants that connect these communities to their natural surroundings risk being forgotten along with evolving trends.

OCTOBER 17, 2025 | BERNAMA

The clatter of cutlery and scraping of plates echoed through Warong Pak Adun, an open-air restaurant here, barely registering over the roar of the waves breaking about 500 metres away. 

Along the side, customers empty the remnants of their meals into a large container by the sink, lined with a garbage bag, and place their used plates in a large bin by the kitchen. 

Lunch had been a rustic affair and so was the after-meal cleanup. An hour or so later, the restaurant owner’s son, on a motorbike and the food waste bin in the sidecar, can be seen puttering along the narrow concrete path that runs from one inhabited end of the island to the other.

“In the old days, if there’s food waste, we (usually) burn or bury it,” said Abdul Ghaffar Ismail, locally known as Pak Adun, owner of the afore-mentioned eatery. 

OCTOBER 7, 2025 | BERNAMA

At the lobby of one of Pulau Besar's three resorts, a dozen tourists in wide-brimmed hats gathered with their luggage, waiting to board boats bound for Mersing.

The weekend was over.

Above them, the sun blazed, its light scattering across the jewelled blues and greens of the Sultan Iskandar Marine Park in the south China sea, which lapped against ribbons of white sand. As the sound of the boat engines faded into the distance, the coconut palms on Pulau Besar - legend has it that the island (formerly called Pulau Babi Besar) was formed when a giant pig tumbled from a Chinese trading junk bound for Melaka - seemed to sigh into silence.

september 27, 2025 | THE SUN

MERSING: Off Johor’s eastern coast, a cluster of islands is showing how tourism can safeguard nature while sustaining culture and livelihoods.

Tengah Island Conservation (TIC) is working with local communities to prove that protecting fragile marine ecosystems need not come at the expense of economic survival.

Its president Cher Chua-Lassalvy stressed that conservation succeeds only when islanders are equal partners.

“We won’t make any difference if the communities around us aren’t involved,” she explained.

The initiative began with school programmes before expanding to Mersing’s shrinking islander population.

JUNe/JuLY 2025 | ASIAN JOURNEYS

Irene Millar discovers an island off Malaysia’s east coast that is setting an example of how sustainable tourism can be conducted in an environmentally sensitive area.

Batu Batu is situated on Pulau Tengah, an otherwise uninhibited island off the coast of Mersing in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor. From its initial inception Batu Batu has been intentional in integrating guests within the island’s pristine natural environment and the coral surrounding it. Creating a space where guests can relax and reconnect with nature, whilst treading lightly in this captivating resort.

NOVEMBER 27, 2023 | THE STAR

Tengah Island Conservation (TIC) director Tanya Leibrick said beach cleanup activities would be continued despite not being able to access all areas of the island during the monsoon season.

She expected extra help after the season to clean up the large amounts of marine debris that washed to the shores during that time.

“We usually wrap up our fieldwork, such as the sea turtle monitoring and changing the sand in our sea turtle hatchery, to give the best possible conditions for the next batch of turtle eggs to develop.

OCTOBER 16, 2023 | THE STAR

TIC community engagement and environment awareness manager Mohd Alzam Mohd Affandy said the non-governmental organisation (NGO) collected the rubbish in September to mark International Coastal Cleanup month.

“The programme was conducted with Mersing District Council, involving 84 volunteers.

“We removed 4,870 plastic bottles, 317 glass bottles and 322 fishing buoys besides 608 sandals and shoes,” he told StarMetro.

OCTOBER 12, 2023 | KOSMO

Nur Syakira Zainal boarded a boat to conduct monitoring on the islands surrounding Sultan Iskandar Marine Park. Using binoculars, the 27-year-old woman, along with two other volunteer marine enthusiasts, searched for traces of turtle landings. The presence of these traces indicates the presence of mother turtles that come ashore to lay their eggs. Nur Syakira emphasized that her team needs to quickly reach the turtle egg nesting area before it is either collected by irresponsible parties or eaten by animals...

september 7, 2023 | viu

Third-year Global Studies student Katie Temporal got to spend three months in Pulau Tengah, Malaysia, this summer. She was working as a sustainability intern with Batu Batu, the island’s only resort, which runs Tengah Island Conservation.

I worked closely with Tengah Island Conservation to collect and bury turtle eggs in the local nursery.

March 18, 2019 | New Straits Times

A new generation of artists tackle environmental issues using technology to innovatively depict the devastating effects of indiscriminate human consumption.

the work or art called Experiencing Beauty by nature-led artist Lucinda Law, visitors will get to see the documentation of the flora and fauna she encountered on her expeditions during her artist-in-residence programme with the environmental scientists at Tengah Island Conservation at Batu Batu, a private resort off Johor, Malaysia that also embraces the principles of sustainability.

SepTember 4, 2018 | BH ONLINE

SULTAN Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar accompanied Batu Batu Resort director Datuk Chua Jui Leng (left) and Johor Secretary of State Datuk Azmi Rohani (two from right) during the opening ceremony of the Tunku Abdul Jalil Conservation Center and the launch of the book 'Island Life' in Batu Batu Resort, Middle Island, Mersing. - Photos of Anuar Random Hair