Tropical Forest Restoration Ecology within a Global South Context
Institution:
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM), Mexico
Traveling 15,140 km to Chart a Path for Global Forest Resilience
Amaziasizamoria Jumail, a research officer at the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Sabah working on the Regrow Borneo project, plans to undertake an attachment at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM), Mexico, to pursue her research in 'Tropical Forest Restoration Ecology within a Global South Context.'
Hailing from Kota Belud, Amaziasizamoria said she was excited to spend her time in Mexico as the issues endangering the forests in Mexico are similar with Malaysia.
Defender of Natural Biodiversity
The Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah is a crucial biodiversity hotspot and a potential carbon sink. Unfortunately, 80% of the forest has been converted for non-forest uses. Launched in 2019, the Regrow Borneo project aims to sequester carbon by replanting trees in the Kinabatangan floodplain, simultaneously benefiting local communities, enhancing biodiversity, and fortifying ecosystem resilience.
Given that Malaysia and Mexico are both biodiversity hotspots confronting similar challenges such as deforestation, climate change, and socio-economic impacts, her attachment gives her the chance to work with a world-renowned research team and gain insights from an established model that may serve as a guideline for the Bornean rainforest.
She looks forward to meeting expert Dr Christina Martinez-Garza and her research team where she will be attached at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM), Mexico.
She also hopes that the attachment will expose her to novel methods which can enhance her work in Borneo and finally allow her to come up with a replicable reforestation model that can be used by everyone - the data collected using these methods will then be used to create a replicable reforestation model.
So far, based on her observation, while many forest restoration efforts have been implemented in Malaysia, there has been no large-scale assessment on studying the impacts of restoration to-date.
Therefore her research, which is aligned with the Regrow Borneo project, will focus on evaluating the impact of forest restoration by including many suitable indicators, such as forest structure, ecological function and biodiversity, as feasible to evaluate the effects of forest restoration.
Empowerment through Ecological Restoration
In her chosen profession, Amaziasizamoria realised that women are outnumbered by men. Hence, she hopes to pave the way for other women to reach their full potential and be an ambassador of my culture and my country Malaysia, as well as being a leader in not only restoring the ecology but also restoring hope for the future generation. Her love for nature made her choose the job but she realised that our forest continues to decline. She is determined to become the game changer inciting effective change in communities and make this world a better place.
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