His belief matches APRIL\u2019s ambition for the\u00a0150,000-ha\u00a0RER project.\u00a0\u201cLandscape scale restoration is highly ambitious and expensive. Governments struggle with restoration on their own. The task is simply too big. There is no doubt partnerships are required for restoration\u201d. He adds: \u201cThe UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals clearly recognise the need for a system where businesses and communities can flourish at the same time as protecting priceless species and ecosystems. I really don\u2019t think there is any other way\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/april.hellopomelo.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Sebastian-2017-Portrait_2-medres-1-209x300.jpg\")
Tony Sebastian, Conservation Planning Specialist<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cNot anyone can do it. Big companies are the ones with the resources to manage land at this scale. What is needed is to give these companies the incentives to do so. APRIL\u2019s expressed commitments demonstrate this necessary determination, and resonate with my own objectives and principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
His fascination with the environment began at a young age when his biologist father gifted him a pair of binoculars. \u201cDad gave me a guidebook too, and by the time I was 12 years old, I had seen most of the birds in my area using those binoculars,\u201d Tony recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lived in a town called Marudi, along the Baram River, not far from Borneo\u2019s Gunung Mulu National Park. The giant rainforest was at my doorstep. Deer entered our backyard, snakes slithered into our bedrooms, and owls flew into our kitchen. It was never a dull moment,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
By the time he entered school, he had made up his mind to work with birds and forests.<\/p>\n
His fascination with birds saw him studying the white-bellied eagle, providing the material for his dissertation. In a career defining moment, he would join the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) while a student, eventually becoming its President 20 years later.<\/p>\n
Established in 1940, the MNS is Malaysia\u2019s largest and oldest nature society. As President, he would lead the society\u2019s charge for the preservation and management of Malaysia\u2019s single largest forested landscape, prompting public scrutiny and eventual government action. His leadership generated media attention and established his reputation as one of Malaysia\u2019s most outspoken advocates for conservation. \u201cDuring my time in this role, I learnt that making an impact not only had to do with applying scientific knowledge, but it is about managing and inspiring people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
His work has taken him to 17 Asian and Mid-Eastern countries. Among his more memorable stints was a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) project in Iran between 2000 and 2004. He recalls the stunning scenery of coniferous forests and alpine meadows, from beaches to rice fields and orchards, to snow-capped peaks. Amid this varied and magnificent landscape, a huge task lay at hand – to restore the Siberian crane habitat there. Ecologists did not want this to go the way of the Caspian tiger, which was last seen in the 1960s, and officially declared extinct in 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a deeply sombre conservation project, because the crane was eventually lost. The world did however learn some valuable lessons about restoring habitats and saving species,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Years later, in 2007, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) project took him to northeast China\u2019s Amur wetlands. The team was tasked to restore farmlands back to wetland. \u201cIt turned me into a bit of a wetland restoration expert,\u201d he says, adding that he subsequently wrote the\u00a0National wetland restoration guidelines for China in 2011.<\/p>\n
By then, he had clocked in decades of rich experience and with it, a priceless global view on tackling environmental issues.<\/p>\n