bcss
Biodiversity Conservation Society Sarawak
Pertubuhan Konservasi Biodiversiti Sarawak
Who we are
BCSS is relatively young society, having held our first General Meeting in September 2008. We are registered in Malaysia under the Societies Act 1966, registered number 0427-04-15 (new number PPM-029-13-21072004).
The main object of the society is:
“to promote the conservation of biodiversity, wildlife and wildlands, especially through scientific research, dissemination of information, training and education.”
Although based in Sarawak, we can undertake activities anywhere in Malaysia or indeed anywhere in the world!
The current committee members are Rambli Ahmad(Chair), Michael Meredith (Vice-chair), Sylvia Ng (Secretary), Braken Tisen (Treasurer), Aishah Majri (Assistant Secretary), Mohd. Azlan Jayasilan and Voon Mufeng. Ngumbang Juat is employed by BCSS as our Chief Instructor and he is heavily involved with all our training activities.
Our main activity is running training workshops in wildlife data analysis and study design.
The gibbon project was intended to test methods for estimating gibbon abundance based on gibbon calls and spatial capture-recapture analysis. The original methods did not work, and field work is on hold until new analytical methods can be developed.
Contact information: workshops – workshops@bcss.org.my; secretary – kikiakriden@yahoo.co.uk
Secretarial address: 7 Jalan Ridgeway, 93250 Kuching, Malaysia
Registered address: No. 4 Lorong Setia Raja 12A2, Taman Stutong Indah, 93550 Kuching, Malaysia
Michael Meredith (“Mike”)
Mike has been in SE Asia for over 30 years, mostly concerned with park management, management planning and training of park staff. He is Vice-Chair of BCSS and workshop coordinator.
Ngumbang Juat
Ngumbang is Chief Instructor for BCSS and is involved with all our workshops. In between workshops, he looks at ways to monitor gibbons from their calls. Previously he worked for WCS Malaysia Program for 8 years, monitoring wildlife in logging areas. He has an MSc in entomology from Universiti Sains Malaysia and an MRes from St Andrews University, Scotland.
Voon Mu Feng (“Fen”)
Fen is currently working with Sarawak Forestry Corporation as an Executive. Previously she worked with WCS Malaysia for several years on tiger conservation before joining IC-CFS project as Johor State Liaison Officer for a year. She has helped with several boot camps and enjoys the process of teaching and sharing knowledge. She has an MSc degree from the University of Kent, UK.
Joshua Pandong
Josh heads the WCS Malaysia team doing research and education on orangutan in Sarawak and he has helped with many Boot Camps. He has a masters degree from the University of Adelaide.
Low Chee Pheng
Chee Pheng worked with WCS Malaysia on tiger surveys in Johor for several years and she was a regular instructor on Boot Camps. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and followed a masters program at State University of New York (SUNY) in Syracuse. She’s now back in Malaysia.
Lukmann Haqeem bin Alen (“Bob”)
Bob worked for WCS-Malaysia Program where he led the field surveys of orangutan in Sarawak. He has now moved to do field research with the WWF programme in Sarawak. He has helped in many Boot Camps since 2012. He holds an MSc in Statistical Ecology from St Andrews University, UK.
Sylvia Ng
Sylvia works for WCS-Malaysia Program. She is part of the orangutan conservation unit and also does urban conservation education. She has experienced a few Boot Camps and loves the idea that wildlife statistics should be fun. She recently completed an MSc in Social Research at Edinburgh University, UK.
Dusit Ngoprasert (“Soy”)
Soy has worked for both WCS and WWF in Thailand. He is now a lecturer and researcher in the Conservation Ecology Programme at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand. His doctoral thesis was on the ecology of bears in Thailand.
Elangkumaran Sagtia Siwan (“Elan”)
Elan is a member of WWF Malaysia’s tiger team, monitoring tigers in the centre and north of Peninsula Malaysia. He is also working on a masters project on elephants in the same area.
Christopher Wong
Chris is also a member of WWF Malaysia’s tiger monitoring team. And he is working on a masters project too, in this case on tapirs.
Tan Win Sim
After chasing after owls, sea ducks and LBJs in North America for two years, Win Sim worked on tiger research for the WCS Malaysia Program. He has a honors degree in Wildlife Ecology from University of Wisconsin-Madison and has just completed a masters degree at Edinburg University, UK.
Akchousanh Rasphone
Akchou is part of the WCS Lao Program team working on carnivores in Lao. She recently completed a DPhil degree with the WildCRU group at the University of Oxford, UK, and is now back in Lao.
Sri Rao
Sri works for the Tropical Rainforest Conservation & Research Centre, TRCRC, under a 1-year grant focusing on CFS work in Perak, Kelantan and Terengganu. He was formerly Operations Manager for Rimba’s Harimau Selamanya work. He has a masters degree in Endangered Species Recovery & Conservation.
Song Wee Liang Neo
Wee is a wildlife researcher working on tiger conservation in Pelindung. She previously worked for WCS-Malaysia program tiger team in Johor and Pahang. She was involved in several enforcement training events for different agencies. She’s now off to St Andrews University to do their MSc programme in Statistical Ecology.
Irene Margareth RP (Areth)
Areth is a co-founder of Sintas Indonesia Foundation currently pursuing her PhD on defaunation with DICE at University of Kent, UK. She’s interested in conservation of felids.
Shyamala Ratnayeke
Shyamala is interested in several aspects of species distributions and population genetics, especially in relation to habitat and landscape characteristics. Her field research includes work on toque macaques and sloth bears in Sri Lanka, small mammals, including carnivores, in Tanzania, coatis and raccoons in the USA, and invasive snails and sun bears in Malaysia.
Colin Strine
Colin set up the king cobra monitoring unit at Sakaerat Research Station and formerly lectured at Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand. He is now based in USA.
Jeevan Rai
Jeevan worked for Friends of Nature Nepal for several years, mostly in the mid-hill forests of Nepal where he studied canids and small carnivores using camera traps and sign surveys. He holds an MSc degree in Environmental Science from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and an MSc in Statistical Ecology from St Andrews University, UK.
Pang Sing Tyan
Pang’s background is in wildlife ecology and animal nutrition. She is also interested in wildlife ecotourism and scientific outreach programmes.
Choo Yan Ru
Yan Ru was a research assistant at National University of Singapore, where he worked on leopards in Sri Lanka.
He recently completed the MSc in Statistical Ecology degree at St Andrews University, UK, and has returned there to do a PhD.
Lungten Dorji
Lungten is doing a PhD at University of Southampton, UK, and is currently posted to Wangchuck Centennial National Park in Bhutan.
Ngwe Lwin
Ngwe is program manager for FFI in Myanmar and is a PhD student at King Mongkut University, Thonburi, Thailand.
Sherub
Sherub works on bird movement ecology in Bhutan and is based in UWICER.
Tashi Dhendup
Tashi is a research officer at UWICER.
Ugyen Penjor
Ugyen has just completed a DPhil at Oxford University, UK, and is moving on to work for FFI in Cambridge.
Yadav Ghimirey
Yadav worked for a long time at Friends of Nature, Nepal, and is crazy about clouded leopard and other felid species. He is now pursuing a PhD at the University of Florida, USA.
Ian Signer
Ian is an expert on informal education methods, especially in environmental education and interpretation. He has been involved with the Boot Camps since 2009 and has shaped the teaching methods we use.