AKEPT Sustainability Leadership Program 2019 is a customized program which co-designed and co-organised by UTM – Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying and AKEPT, Academy Leadership for Higher Education, Ministry of Malaysia. The aim is to expose the leader with local issues on site while addressing the global environmental challenges framed in Sustainable Development Goals 2030.  The program deploys the Sustainability Science approach to identify the local issues pertaining the dynamic interactions between man and environment in pursuing sustainable development and come up with the proposed solutions as an earlier effort to support the Johor State Sustainability Policy. The program which ran from 3rd – 8th March 2019 was officiated by the Dean of Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Prof. Dr. Mohd Hamdan Ahmad and the Acting Director of AKEPT, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ismie Roha binti Mohamed Jais. It was also attended by the VIPs including the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar, Rector of International Islamic University Malaysia, Professor Tan Sri Dr. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak and representatives from local stakeholder and NGOs. The program was attended by mid-career academia with various discipline as leaders representing  the 20 Higher Education of Institution, HEI in Malaysia who were selected from the talent pool of AKEPT.

There were 23 leaders representing 20 Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia who attended the program and representatives from stakeholders and several Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs and villagers surrounding the Serkat and Air Masin districts who have been involved with community mapping and focus group discussion, FGDs in Tanjung Piai and Thistle Hotel. The experts come from various institutions in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

This time, the program tried to address the issues related with the development in the Southern part of Peninsular Malaysia in pursuing the sustainable development agenda. The program consisted of 30 percent class room lecture and 70 percent of technical site visit and data collection as well as series of focus group discussion, and FGDs. Several ‘Living Labs’ identified in this program which function as learning sites and data collections are Forest City, Tanjung Kupang for mangrove habitat tracking, two Ramsar Sites; Pulau Kukup & Tanjung Piai, Bugis House at Mukim Serkat followed by the community mapping surrounding Kukup Town, Mukim Serkat & Air Masin, Pontian District in Johor.  The program works as a top-bottom approach of Sustainability Science Policy nexus to operationalise the Sustainability Policy of Johor State in order to propose the Johor State UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a BRs status.

The 30 percent of lecture sessions covered the ‘Adaptive Leadership to support Sustainable Development’, by Professor Tan Sri Dr. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Rector of International Islamic University Malaysia, the Environmental Sustainability perspective of Mangrove ecosystem, Dr. Aldrie Amir, Institute of Sustainable Development, LESTARI UKM, community based tourism in village in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hassanal Awangku Pengiran Bagul, from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, the Sustainability Science Policy Nexus to Mobilize Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs by Dr. Irina Safitri Zen from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and the community based approach in Biosphere reserve in Giam Siak Kecil, Pekanbaru by Dr. Prima Wahyu Titisari from Universitas Islam Riau.

Besides, Transdisciplinary approach was presented by the Johor Park experience in managing Ramsar Site and the Sabah Park experience in managing Croacker Range, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Sabah. Representatives from think-thank organisations, Mr. Alizan Mahadi presented on the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG 2030 and the prioritization for Malaysia from Institute for Strategic International Studies, ISIS. In addition,  Ms Cheryl Rita Kaur from Maritime Institute of Malaysia, MIMA, shared the benefits of having Particularly Sensitive Area, PSSA designation site under the International Maritime Organisations to strengthen the sea-based approach to protect the environmental sensitive area. The experience in developing the community-based works was shared by Dr. Serina Rahman, a research fellow from Yusof Ishak Institute, National University of Singapore.

At the end, the findings from this programs i.e. the SWOT analysis, the land suitability analysis and community mapping and action plan will be delivered to the higher government authority in Johor State as an initial stage to support the Johor State UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.

The program was led by Dr. Irina Safitri Zen, the associate fellow of CIPD and head of Sustainability Research Unit, Institute Sultan Iskandar with the expert team, Dr Gobi Krishna, the senior lecturer URP, FBES and Assoc fellow of CIPD, Assist. Prof. Nur Hidayah binti Abd Rahman, Tourism Panning, Kuliyah of Language and Management, International Islamic University Malaysia.

This is the third time UTM has organized the Sustainability Program funded by AKEPT. The first AKEPT Sustainability Leadership program in 2015 was organised by Sustainability Research Unit, Institute Sultan Iskandar which was co-designed for the leader from HE leader from ASEAN countries. The program focused on the community-based tourism activities surrounding Angkor Wat and the fisherman community in Tonle Sap lake, Siam Reap, Cambodia. The second program in 2017, was organised in Bali Island, as a UNESCO world heritage site, cultural landscape in Indonesia. The program was co-designed to identify the local issues hampering the farmers and the impact of being world heritage site as well as the expansive tourism development. In each of the program, the local issues were highlighted and  local government had to work closely with the stakeholder in order to contribute to achieve sustainable society within its context as well as to address the global goal of Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs 2030. At the end, as a result of the action research, output from the program was given to the respective organisations to streamline their action with the priority SDGs goals identified from the sustainability leadership program.

Finally, we offered our gratitude to the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) and the various internal and external organisations involved in this program.