Wetlands International
Wetlands Monitoring System (WMS) for Building With Nature (BwN) Tanjung Kepah Mangrove Action Project
The coastal village of Tanjung Kepah in Perak's Manjung District is home to a community whose traditional livelihood as fishermen is intrinsically linked to the surrounding coastal and mangrove ecosystem. However, since 2004, the area has faced severe coastal erosion, which has significantly degraded the vital mangrove forests and marine biodiversity. This environmental decline poses a direct threat to the residents, whose income depends on the health of these resources for collecting fish, clams, crabs, and other marine produce.
To combat this crisis, the Tanjung Kepah Mangrove Action Project (TKMAP) has introduced a sustainable intervention: a permeable wave screen structure built from bamboo poles. These eco-friendly installations are designed to mimic natural coastal defenses by promoting sedimentation and improving soil stability, thus creating optimal conditions for mangrove regeneration. Furthermore, they act as effective wave breakers, protecting newly planted mangrove saplings from strong wave energy and dramatically enhancing their chances of survival.
Organization
Wetlands International is the only global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands. We are deeply concerned about the loss and deterioration of wetlands such as lakes, marshes and rivers. Our vision is a world where wetlands are treasured and nurtured for their beauty, the life they support and the resources they provide.
Wetlands International Malaysia is dedicated to maintaining and restoring wetlands— for their environmental values as well as for the services they provide to people. We work through our network of offices, our partners and experts to achieve our goals. Most of our work is financed on a project basis by corporations under their CSR programme, research institutions, government agencies and through foreign grants.
The Challenge
The Tanjung Kepah Mangrove Action Project (TKMAP) faces a core hurdle in data management, needing to efficiently collect and analyze information from both local field workers and technical experts. The field data, gathered by villagers, is crucial for monitoring the project's tangible impacts. This includes four key types: sedimentation data to track how the bamboo wave screens physically alter the beach; structure integrity data to assess the need for maintenance and inform future designs; mangrove tree replanting data to monitor the survival and health of new saplings; and biodiversity data to gauge the overall recovery of the fauna in the ecosystem.
The Solution
To overcome the data management challenges, Wetlands International partnered with MyNEF and FIB Asia to develop the Wetlands Monitoring System (WMS), a comprehensive digital solution designed to capture, visualize, and analyze all data for the TKMAP project. This system significantly streamlines operations by equipping field workers with a mobile app that standardizes data collection, including geo-tagged records, images, and videos. The back-end system allows the Wetlands International team to efficiently view information and generate reports, drastically reducing manual work. Looking ahead, the next phase of WMS development will include a new module to calculate the amount of carbon sequestered by the regenerated mangrove trees, which will quantify an additional value stream for the restoration project beyond reducing coastal erosion and restoring marine life.
The Transformation
The implementation of the Wetlands Monitoring System (WMS) provides significant benefits to Wetlands International and its clients, which include project donors and sponsors. For Wetlands International, the WMS not only streamlines project operations by digitizing field data collection and report generation, drastically reducing manual work, but also enhances its credibility as a leading conservation organization through the demonstration of technical innovation and rigorous data-driven monitoring. For their clients, who often fund projects through CSR programmes or grants, the WMS offers a powerful tool for transparency and accountability, enabling Wetlands International to provide standardized, verifiable evidence of the project's ecological success and impact, such as mangrove survival rates and biodiversity recovery. Furthermore, the future module to calculate carbon sequestration will unlock a measurable, quantifiable value that aligns with corporate environmental reporting and global climate goals, effectively increasing the attractiveness and investment value of Wetlands International's future restoration initiatives.
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