What is RUGS - RUGS - Rantaian Urban Green Spaces

Behind The Logo

To symbolise the importance of connection, we included the pangolin as the keystone animal on the left, with the targeted reconnection overlapping in the dark green areas, while the forest is on the right. This illustrates RUGS as the means of connection to make them meet. From species to species, in a holistic environment.

Our Story

Rantaian Urban Green Spaces (RUGS) is a conservation project that aims to steward and support multi-stakeholder collaboration to collectively safeguard, rehabilitate, and connect the fragmented green spaces within the Klang Valley.

Led by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), RUGS involves participatory planning and empowerment of local communities.

Across Klang Valley, the small, fragmented green spaces are often sidelined in favour of bigger forest tracts in other parts of the country. However, these green spaces are still habitat to a number of the flora and fauna of Malaysia, which must be protected and rehabilitated.

Meanwhile, the numerous local champions representing and protecting these fragmented green spaces are mostly working in silos. What more with and between government bodies and city councils. With little coordination amongst them, an effective landscape-based conservation effort is difficult to achieve.

With seed funding from the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), RUGS is established to address these issues and serve as the connector between civil society organisations, government bodies and the grassroots.

Our Objectives

We are guided by the following objectives in bridging the green gaps, fostering collective action, and creating a green sanctuary for all in Klang Valley.

Landscape Strategy Development

Establish ties between community-led conservation efforts, civil society organisations, government bodies, city councils, and the grassroots to share knowledge from the Klang Valley landscape assessment and past project experiences to design effective landscape strategies and action plans for the protection and restoration of the valley’s green landscape.

Multi-stakeholder Stewardship Platform

Establish a platform comprising the various stakeholders as abovementioned, but not without the crucial participation of women, indigenous people, youth and other marginalised groups. The latter will be engaged through the practice of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

Capacity Building

Provide training to local guardians such as community-led conservation groups, civil society organisations, and members of the community by linking up with experienced organisations and other strategic partners. This is to equip them with hard and soft skills on participatory conservation and restoration techniques, and build a chain of custodies from the ground up.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Ensure durability of project results by assisting local guardians in monitoring, evaluating and troubleshooting the results (from environmental, ecological and social aspects) of participatory conservation, restoration and sustainable livelihood intervention.

Knowledge Management

Systematically consolidate and share best practices and lessons learned from case studies in the Klang Valley landscape on how to best implement landscape-based conservation, restoration, and sustainable livelihood interventions for the future development and management of land and resources.

Advocacy for Policy Reform

Partnership building among key stakeholders to advocate for policy reform and facilitate broader adoption of participatory approaches supporting landscape-based conservation, restoration, and sustainable livelihood interventions.

Upscaling Connectivity

Enhance the connectivity of green spaces through the installation of ecological (via tree planting) and physical pathways (trails, pavements, bridges, ecoducts) on the most feasible identified connector. This means the closest distance to green spaces (community parks, forest reserves) that allow mobility for the wildlife and local communities between the landscapes, as well as protection of the connected green spaces as a whole landscape.

Landscape Strategy Development

Multi-stakeholder Stewardship Platform

Capacity Building

Monitoring
and Evaluation

Knowledge Management

Advocacy for Policy Reform

Project Upscaling

Our Strategies

The roadmap in building a collective conservation effort that calls our multi-stakeholders to take ownership and shared responsibilities in protecting Klang Valley’s remaining green spaces.

Our Strategies

The roadmap in building a collective conservation effort that calls our multi-stakeholders to take ownership and shared responsibilities in protecting Klang Valley’s remaining green spaces.

Establish ties between stakeholders

Government bodies such as NRECC, Forestry Department, and city councils.

Civil society organisations and local groups such as MNS, FoBK, as well as the women, youth, and indigenous communities.

Establish a multi-stakeholder platform

Input from all parties to design effective strategies and action plans for the restoration and connection of Klang Valley green landscapes. Phase I focuses on connecting the green spaces of the Damansara-Pantai Arc and Kuala Lumpur City Centre

Collective action and empowerment

The platform provides and supports stakeholders within the landscape with capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, and knowledge management.

Creating recreation and ecotourism opportunities

With the creation of a green sanctuary, urbanites can enjoy the connectivity while unlocking the potential of Klang Valley as a prime ecotourism hotspot where the local communities can find employment and enterprising opportunities.

Expanding the project to a wider scale

Phase II extends to the eastern Klang Valley towards the Central Forest Spine (CFS).

Establish ties between stakeholders

Government bodies such as NRECC, Forestry Department, and city councils.

Civil society organisations and local groups such as MNS, FoBK, as well as the women, youth, and indigenous communities.

Establish ties between stakeholders

Government bodies such as NRECC, Forestry Department, and city councils.

Civil society organisations and local groups such as MNS, FoBK, as well as the women, youth, and indigenous communities.

Multi-stakeholder Stewardship Platform

Collective action and empowerment

The platform provides and supports stakeholders within the landscape with capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, and knowledge management.

Collective action and empowerment

The platform provides and supports stakeholders within the landscape with capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, and knowledge management.