REACH
Creating Awareness
Regional
Environmental
Awareness Cameron
Highlands
COMMUNITY STANDS UP FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Serious environmental problems makes community action necessary. The once tranquil Cameron Highlands
faces environmental degradation due to unsustainable agricultural and urban expansion.
The Cameron Highlands is known to be
a cool highland retreat with picturesque
colonial styled bungalows cast against a
backdrop of lush green rainforest or
undulating slopes of terraced tea
plantations. However over the past two
decades the rate of development has
been especially rampant and much of this
beauty is being ravaged. While it has
benefited the local economy, poor
planning and lack of enforcement has led
to severe environmental degradation of
the highlands. Forest logging, landslides,
silted rivers and dams, constant water
disruptions and poor water quality have
plagued local residents for years now. It
was these problems that spurred a small
group of concerned residents of the
highlands to form the society of Regional
Environmental Awareness Cameron
Highlands. REACH was founded in 2001
and is run entirely by volunteers with
Concerned
citizens try
their best to
save the beauty
of their
homeland.
funds from membership, sale of
merchandize, donations and small grants.
Our activities include creating public
awareness on environmental issues, a
recycling program and conducting studies
on water quality and forest biodiversity.
We have constantly emphasized that the
Cameron Highlands is an important
water catchment area and that forests
reserves gazetted as water catchments
should not be encroached or degazetted
for development. To get track of the
water quality of the rivers, REACH has
initiated a community based approach to Logo
water quality monitoring. The logo of REACH. In the
center is the local orchid
Help us by supporting or joining us in Dendrobium brinchanginese.
our aim "to conserve Cameron Highlands
as an area of natural resources and as a
natural heritage, a highland resort
surrounded by permanent forest reserve
and sustainable agriculture with quality
drinking water".