Sarawak Tourism Board continues to advance Responsible Tourism and sustainable agenda during its iconic events
KUCHING, 13th June 2022 – Virtual audiences of the online streaming for the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) and Borneo Jazz (BJ) 2022 will be able to play a part in saving the environment through Sarawak Tourism Board (STB)’s ecoGreenPlanet tree-planting programme, one of the greening initiatives under its Responsible Tourism (RT) agenda.
Through this greening initiative, members of the public who purchased the virtual tickets will contribute to the programme where RM10 for each RM25 virtual RWMF or BJ ticket sold will be donated towards a tree-planting activity that will be held after the festivals.
RWMF and BJF’s sponsors also contributes to this tree-planting initiative, in which at least 2,000 plants are being sponsored by companies for the programme.
STB CEO Sharzede Datu Hj Salleh Askor said through this initiative, STB continues to pursue its agenda on Responsible Tourism and sustainability by incorporating a new approach in creating awareness on environmental issues via a digital platform.
“As RWMF and BJ are both in hybrid format this year, we would like to be inclusive by giving the opportunity to online audiences to also contribute towards our environmental efforts, which previously can only be done by physical festival-goers,” she added.
STB’s greening inititatives, which is in line with the United Nation‘s Sustainable Development Goals, is part of its’ agenda to raise awareness on environmental issues and to encourage responsible tourism practices especially amongst festival-goers.
This year, at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2022’s site Sarawak Cultural Village, STB will continue its eco-friendly initiatives that were started in 2019 such as sustainable procurement, waste management strategy, food composting, green ambassadorship as well as efforts to reduce carbon emmissions and upcycling of materials.
One of the main greening initiatives is the installation of water stations throughout the Sarawak Cultural Village, in collaboration with Canard Media Sdn Bhd, to discourage the purchase of single-use water bottles and help reduce the number of plastic bottles. Therefore, festival-goers are highly encouraged to bring along their own water tumblers to the festival where they can fill up their bottles at the water station for free. Festival-goers could also purchase limited edition collapsible cups and tiffins at the festival.
Meanwhile, WormingUp, a Kuching-based social enterprise, will be collecting food waste from the festival to be converted into bio-protein for fertiliser and animal feed for local farmers. Another initiative named Moop (Matter out of Place), patrols will ensure to keep the the festival site exactly how it was before the festival by working together with festival-goers to clear up th festival site at the end of the daily events.
As it has been implemented during the previous festivals, shuttle buses will ferry festival-goers from the city centre and from nearby locations to the festival grounds to alleviate carbon emissions and to prevent congestion at the venue site.
For Borneo Jazz 2022, there will be an Eco-Art installation project in collaboration with Miri City Council and MYY Living Arts, as a continuation of the Borneo Jazz Beat Plastic Campaign initiated in 2019, as part of the Borneo Jazz festival ‘Responsible Tourism’ programme to transform Miri to a sustainable and eco-friendly city. Themed ‘Trashing the Jungle’, this is a reminder that the plastics that make our lives convenient also choke and pollute our natural environment through our own actions. The objective of this eco-project is to re-purpose recyclable plastic waste and making art with it.
Another initiative is the ECO DRUMS, an eco-friendly initiative and community music outreach programme with Lewis Pragasam and FAB LAB artists at Coco Cabana, to create unique drums and percussion instruments from recycling waste and to produce feel-good beats from community drumming sessions as a lead up to Borneo Jazz Festival 2022.
The RWMF and BJ are both uniquely positioned, as a locally held and internationally recognised events, to create a positive environmental, social and economical impact that can benefit the people and its communities. Together with various environmentally-based establishments, STB continues its efforts to make the events an example in sustainable practices and making zero waste a reality.
