Cyber Plant Conservation Project
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Cyber Plant Conservation Project- merging
conservation with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Malaysia Plant conservation has evolved with setting up of seed genebanks and field genebanks for plants that cannot be stored as seed. Genebank standards have been set up to provide targets for institutions housing genebanks to ensure proper seed storage procedures and conditions. The conservation process in general involves identification, collecting, storing, managing and using genetic resources as well as the information derived from them. The work is carried out by formal institutions and the process is complicated enough for International Institutions to be set-up to manage the conservation processes. Cost of conservation is not cheap and when thousands of accessions are maintained then the cost becomes very high. ICT has been used in conservation primarily in the documentation of information for genebank management besides that they are also used in expert system development and process control in genebanks and laboratory equipments. The development of the Internet increases the possibilities of information sharing. Although it is said that we conserve for our future generations, there is however no activity for the future generations to participate in now to prepare them to accept the materials in the future. The idea of a Cyber Plant Conservation Project was mooted at the GK2 meeting in Kuala Lumpur during a knowledge sharing session. The objective is to engage the public in conservation in a public awareness exercise with the use of ICT in their daily lives. The activities begin from the school level and diffuse to the community in contact with the school children. The activity at a demonstration level targets secondary school students in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and in Sarawak. Objectives are; 1. to demonstrate that an "active" public participation in conservation of rare plant genetic resources can be implemented with the help of ICT, through the planting and caring of rare fruit trees by school students in diverse locations as well as the sharing of knowledge about their uses. 2. To enhance the environmental awareness of the future leaders of our society, i.e. the school students, using the planted rare fruit trees as the basis for ICT-based scientific research projects with environmental themes. 3. To teach the school students thinking and research skills to facilitate them in self-directed learning using ICT. These objectives were developed to address the issues of; 1. Rare plant genetic resources planted and nurtured in a few isolated areas, under the care of scientists, are used to preserve the bio-diversity of the rich flora species in our country without much public participation. The traditional knowledge of the public on the uses of these plants has not been documented completely and younger generations are losing this valuable knowledge. 2. There is generally a lack of scientifically based understanding and awareness in our society of the close relationships between our physical health and the conditions of our environment. As a result of this, the majority in our society is not conscious of the negative impacts of their actions on the environment. 3. Our current education system does not provide enough incentives/opportunities for our school students to acquire thinking and research skills based on self-directed, interest-driven, project-based learning. There is a need to teach our school students the above skills so that they can perform confidently in a world where information is abundant and constantly changing. Cyber clubs are set up in the school and students divided into teams. Each team will care for one rare fruit tree planted in the school. The team will also develop a web page for the tree and should last the life time of the tree. The content of the pages will be the activities that the children conduct using the tree as the centre of focus. Examples of activities are morphological characterisation, inventory exercise to document similar trees in the community, tree care, plant propagation, documenting plant uses and much more. There is a diverse group of player in the project. Example, Scientist provides the rare plants and ICT training, the Rakan Muda youth group arrange for mentors to assist the students in their activities, Parent teachers association can chip in with their support for PC, private companies can assist with fertilizers and even the students parent and grandparents assist by sharing the knowledge they hold about the plants, effectively transmitting their knowledge to the younger generation. For all these to sustain, there is a need for recognition and this is where the ICT tool, the Internet and the web pages enable the process. The tree as the centre of focus equates to web pages that will last the lifetime of a tree. The long life span makes it ideal as a reason to setup school alumni. Graduated students can bring their children back to their school to see the tree they had cared for after showing the children their contribution documented in the tree web pages. The use of ICT is in knowledge sharing and recognition. Recognition is a motivation for people to continue being aware that they have contributed and they can cite it to others. This is similar to the way that scientist are recognised for their contributions through scientific papers that can be cited by others. There is more meaning to put your presence on the web for a tree! The project brings out a new dimension in conservation, that is "conservation is making them common". The endpoint of conservation is when a plant/organism is common. The move is to engage the public in conservation in a public awareness exercise with the use of ICT in their daily lives.
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