Professor Dr Chan Eng Heng

Recipient of Outstanding Contribution to Environment & Planetary Health 2026

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A Lifetime Devoted to Malaysia’s Turtles

Professor Dr Chan Eng Heng never imagined that turtles would define her life’s work.

Her journey began in the early 1980s at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia’s (UPM) Terengganu campus, where she was handed an unexpected request to investigate why leatherback turtle eggs were hatching so poorly.

Turtles were an entirely new field to the young fish biologist. But as she began searching for answers, another opportunity emerged. Esso Malaysia offered her funding to study the leatherbacks of Terengganu, drawing her deeper into the world of these ancient marine creatures. What began almost by chance became a lifelong commitment that would take Professor Chan from laboratories and nesting beaches to classrooms, communities and international conservation forums.

Over the next five decades, she would become one of Malaysia’s leading voices in turtle conservation, helping to place scientific evidence at the heart of turtle conservation, while showing that protecting wildlife ultimately depends on people who care enough to act.

Measuring the carapace length of a post-nesting green turtle.

When Research Became a Responsibility

Professor Chan joined UPM in 1976 as a lecturer in fish biology.

Her early turtle research took her to Rantau Abang, then renowned for its leatherback population. Decades earlier, thousands of leatherbacks had returned to the coast, while large numbers of their eggs were harvested for consumption. By the 1980s, the nesting population had fallen dramatically.

It was against this backdrop that Professor Chan and her colleague, Associate Professor Liew Hock Chark began the work that would eventually lead to the establishment of the Sea Turtle Research Unit (SEATRU) in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. Together, they studied how turtles nested, hatchability eggs, population trends and the movements of turtles at sea. Their research provided evidence for stronger protection measures, including restrictions on the sale of leatherback eggs and fishing activities around important turtle habitats.

Sadly, these interventions came to late to reverse the leatherback’s decline, and the species is now considered functionally extinct in Malaysia. For Professor Chan, however, the experience left an enduring lesson that would shape the next chapter of her work - conservation must act before decline becomes irreversible.

What they learnt at Rantau Abang would not be lost. Professor Chan and her colleague carried that knowledge forward, applying it to the conservation of green and hawksbill turtles, especially on Redang Island.

Monitoring the nesting activity of a green turtle.

Giving Every Egg a Better Chance

At Chagar Hutang on Redang Island, Professor Chan encountered another uncomfortable reality.

She and her colleague would spend nights observing and researching nesting green turtles, only to watch licensed collectors arrive the next morning to gather the eggs for sale.

It forced her to confront a fundamental question: what purpose did sophisticated research serve if the next generation of turtles could not be protected.

That question helped shift her work from studying conservation to putting it into practice. Research by her team showed that leaving eggs to incubate naturally where mother turtles had laid them could produce high hatch rates and healthier sex ratios than those relocated to conventional hatcheries. In 1993, Chagar Hutang became the site of Malaysia’s pioneering long-term in-situ marine turtle egg protection programme.

Initially, corporate funding enabled SEATRU to purchase nests from licensed collectors and engage islanders to monitor nesting turtles. But when that support ended as a result of the Asian financial crisis, the programme faced a defining moment. Can the work continue without the funding it had relied upon?

Professor Chan found her answer in the public.

She introduced paid volunteerism, turtle and nest adoption schemes and even made turtle-themed souvenirs herself to raise funds. Volunteers helped patrol beaches, tag turtles, monitor nests and release hatchlings. What began as a funding solution evolved into something larger: ordinary people became conservation advocates.

The approach gave SEATRU greater financial independence and helped sustain its conservation work for decades. More importantly, it demonstrated an idea that would become central to Professor Chan’s work - lasting conservation could not depend on scientists alone. It needed the public to become part of the solution.

Bonding with a hatchling before releasing it into the sea.

Show-casing a turtle nest undergoing in-situ incubation.

Releasing hatchlings into the sea with YBhg Tan Sri Dato Seri Haji Idris Jusoh.

With volunteers and turtle camp participants at the turtle sanctuary.

From Protection to Recovery

The results did not come quickly. But year by year, nest by nest, the impact of sustained protection began to show.

By the time Professor Chan retired in 2009, SEATRU had saved about half a million turtle eggs from human consumption and released more than 400,000 hatchlings into the sea. The work continued even after her retirement and by 2025, approximately 1.15 million hatchlings had been released on Redang Island. More telling still was what was happening back on the beach. At Chagar Hutang, where nesting numbers had once been sparse, nesting numbers rose substantially over the years. The long-term programme has contributed to a remarkable recovery at the site and demonstrated what sustained protection over generations can achieve. Professor Chan’s advocacy also helped build momentum for stronger habitat protection. Chagar Hutang was gazetted as a turtle sanctuary in 2005, followed by other important nesting beaches on Redang Island.

And the turtles themselves revealed an even bigger picture. Professor Chan and her colleagues’ research on turtle migration showed that these animals recognise no national boundaries, travelling through the waters of multiple countries during their lifetime and making regional cooperation essential. This growing scientific understanding contributed to wider efforts such as the ASEAN Framework for Sea Turtle Conservation and Protection.

Collecting ectoparasite samples from a juvenile turtle.

Conservation Through People

For Professor Chan, protecting turtles was never just about
turtles.

It was about changing the way people understood and ultimately, cared for them. She brought that belief to children, establishing turtle camps on Redang Island, where young participants from the school in Redang Island could experience patrols, nesting turtles and conservation firsthand. A bedtime story she once shared with the children later became Little Turtle Messenger, a bilingual book introducing younger generations to the consequences of
consuming turtle eggs.

In Kuala Terengganu, she transformed a neglected lane into Turtle Alley, combining mosaics, storytelling and conservation messages to bring the subject into everyday public life.

Retirement in 2009 did little to slow her down. In 2011, Professor Chan, her former student Dr Chen Pelf Nyok and associates, co-founded the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia, extending their efforts to endangered freshwater turtles. Its community-based programmes have since protected thousands of southern river terrapin eggs and released head-started terrapins into the Kemaman River. Local villagers - including some once involved in egg collection – were trained to become guardians of the very nesting sites they once harvested eggs from.

Professor Chan’s legacy also lives through the scientists she mentored, including Dr Chen, Associate Professor Dr Juanita Joseph and Associate Professor Dr Mohd Uzair Rusli, who have continued advancing turtle research and conservation in Malaysia. Her contributions have received international recognition including UNEP’s Global 500 Roll of Honour, listing in Who’s Who of Women and the Environment, the International Sea Turtle Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, recognition among Malaysia’s Wiki Impact 100 Changemakers in 2022 and designation as a Living Legend of Sea Turtle Conservation in 2024.

Showing students how microchips are inserted into turtles for tracking purposes.

Disclaimer:
The information in this award recipient's profile is accurate to the best of our knowledge as of the time the award was presented. Any subsequent changes, updates, or developments in the individual's life or achievements may not be reflected in this profile.

A Life Still Rooted in Nature

Retirement may have taken Professor Chan away from the nesting beaches of Terengganu, but it did not end her relationship with the natural world.

After returning to Kuala Lumpur, she founded the Klang Valley Plant Acquisition community, which has grown to nearly 9,000 members and later created an Edible Plant Sanctuary where she hopes to grow food, restore nature, build community and encourage more sustainable lifestyles.

At 76, her work has shifted from turtles to plants and from academic research to everyday sustainability. But the underlying belief remains unchanged: individuals can make a difference when knowledge is accompanied by action.

Receiving the 2026 Merdeka Award for Outstanding Contribution to Environment & Planetary Health is deeply meaningful to Professor Chan. She hopes the recognition brings renewed attention to Malaysia’s turtles and encourages younger scientists and conservationists to continue the work.

Her journey reflects the Merdeka Award Trust’s belief that enduring contribution is built not only through achievement, but through knowledge shared, communities empowered and a legacy carried forward by others.

Relocating turtle eggs to a safer location.

With volunteers in the Edible Plant Sanctuary.

“Embrace opportunities and take up challenges. Get your hands dirty and doors will open for you”

Other Recipients

MERCY Malaysia