By: Noor Eszereen Juferi
SERDANG, 20 August – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Hug PLT have signed a letter of intent to instil environmental awareness and communal responsibility as the first step in establishing a collaboration in hosting the Associated Media in Education for Environmental Sustainability (AMEES) programme.
UPM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datin Paduka Dato’ Dr. Aini Ideris said that the collaboration highlights UPM as the first public institution in Malaysia to integrate the media in education to deliver environmental and sustainable development awareness to its key stakeholders.
"AMEES serves as an education and research programme by incorporating media elements in education to deliver awareness of environmental sustainability.”
"By using the appropriate means of delivering educational messages, it can form a better world for the future by equipping the community with the knowledge of living and working in a sustainable way to preserve the environment," she said.
The media also functions as a bridge connecting conservation scientists to millions of people around the world, she said while pointing out that every small step can bring great changes to society.
"By integrating the media, it becomes a useful educational tool to convey environmental awareness to the younger generation about the importance of the environment and the various ways to protect it," she said.
The HUG PLT Project director, Mark Lee See Teck, said the project is the first digital storytelling platform in Malaysia that focuses on environmental subjects by channelling the call to action objectives to its audience towards environmental consciousness and community service engagement.
"The HUG Project is a platform that promotes the ideology of 'Making a Positive EnvironMENTAL Change' with the power of the media that resulted in an effectively unique interactive story-telling strategy to its audience where facts are still being acquired and attract important key players," he said.
He said the media is a useful tool, and its importance as a means of conserving the environment and as a tool for motivation and effective education is often neglected.
Meanwhile, UPM as a research university is tasked with leading the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which has become a global agenda when the United Nations introduced the 17 goals that must be met by all nations by 2030.
The purpose of the development is to establish a stable relationship between human activity and the natural world without neglecting the prospects of future generations. - UPM
