IOIPG CITY NATURE CHALLENGE 2022: INSPIRING CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Participating citizen scientists documenting and submitting their observations through the iNaturalist application.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- IOI Properties Group (IOIPG) organised the IOIPG City Nature Challenge 2022 across its groupwide developments from 29 April to 8 May 2022 in Malaysia, Singapore and Xiamen, China. This event was a collaboration with local environmental organisations coordinating the City Nature Challenge (CNC) global initiative, namely Sekitar Kita, Water Warriors of Universiti Malaya and Iskandar Malaysia CNC. The IOIPG City Nature Challenge is aimed at achieving IOIPG’s Sustainability Goal of Caring for the Environment, whereby the Group continues its efforts in creating a sustainable community that cares for nature. It is in line with the Group’s mission of: ‘Trusted. to safeguard our environment’, and in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): SDG 4: Quality Education; SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; SDG 15: Life on Land; SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals. City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a worldwide biodiversity initiative that brings global communities together in an effort to find, observe and document plants and wildlife through a bioblitz-style competition. In this challenge, cities around the world compete to make the most observations of urban plants and wildlife in the outdoors, using the iNaturalist app, for the purpose of connecting people to nature and generating scientifically valuable biodiversity data. “IOIPG has been participating in the City Nature Challenge since 2019.In 2021, the Group organised its maiden IOIPG City Nature Challenge to encourage participation from our customers, residents and employees,” said Kristine Ng, IOI Properties Group General Manager, Group Corporate Communication and Sustainability.

“In view of the endemic, IOIPG City Nature Challenge 2022 featured safe and family-friendly activities, which began with an introductory virtual webinar to raise awareness on how the general public can play an important role in collecting urban biodiversity data for scientific research,” Ng added. During the CNC, participants also known as citizen scientists received a digital sharing toolkit containing useful information about the competition and took part in a social media blitz to contribute towards citizen science by making and uploading their observations on the iNaturalist website or application. Over the course of the competition, IOIPG managed to record 2,794 nature observations and have identified 910 species across Malaysia, Singapore and Xiamen, China to date. The IOIPG City Nature Challenge webinar drew a crowd of 320 participants while The IOIPG City Nature Challenge attracted over 230 observers and identifiers. Inclusive of data collected from the previous year, IOIPG has recorded 6,123 nature observations and identified 1,641 species to date across its group-wide developments in Malaysia, Singapore, and Xiamen, China. From current and aspiring citizen scientists to nature enthusiasts, the IOIPG City Nature Challenge 2022 has inspired people from all walks of life to gather valuable urban biodiversity data with the aim of protecting nature together. The photo can be downloaded here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1imfi2rGAq3j9D-CRNtrTWS7k8XOZtGoG?usp=sharing. SOURCE : IOI Properties Group Berhad