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DGFC is pleased to announce another Eco-Art Contest. To participate, please read carefully the important following info: ABOUT THE THEME The contest’s theme for this month is Environmental Awareness. The main purpose is to encourage the public to think seriously about conservation of the environment around them and the earth's future, as well as raising environmental awareness and move others to take action. GENERAL CONDITIONS:

1. Contestants’ artwork must be original and must relate to the theme of the contest. It is critical that submitted artwork not be overly derivative of images found on the internet, in print media, or elsewhere. To avoid copyright infringement, works thought to be copies will be disqualified.
2. Each contestant can send a maximum of three entries but only the best one will be chosen.
3. Art type: Paintings, Drawings, Illustration.
4. Art medium: No restrictions.
5. A caption must be given for the art work and must be accompanied by a corresponding description (no more than 200 words) explaining any designs ideas and concepts.
6. Contestants will retain copyright of their submitted entries. However, by entering, all contestants licence DGFC a royalty-free perpetual licence to edit, publish and use each entry in any and all media (including print and online) for publicity and news purposes.
7. Open for Malaysians only.

IMPORTANT DATES: 1^st July 2020                  - Contest is open 23^rd July 2020      - Closing date. Latest by 5:00pm 31^st July 2020      - Announcement of winner JUDGING CRITERIA: The art will be judged based on these criteria:-

1. Concept (25%) : How well does the work relate to the topic/theme?
2. Creativity & originality (25%) : How original and creative does the quality of the artwork?
3. Colour (25%): How does colour enhance the artwork?
4. Expressions (25%): How imaginatively does the work convey an idea?

SUBMISSION OF ARTWORK

1. Create a digital image (soft copy) of your artwork by either of these methods:-

• Scan
• Photograph

* Make sure to save and submit them in high resolution. You can save your artwork either in JPEG or PDF format.

2. Please provide these info in an ordered manner when submitting your artwork:

• Full name
• IC number
• Contact number
• Address
• Artwork caption

3. Should be submitted electronically to education@dgfc.life

PRIZES

• Only ONE winner per contest.
• Winner will receive DGFC’s t-shirts, books, and merchandise combo.

ENQUIRY For more info, please email us at education@dgfc.life.

On behalf of the Ramirez Saldivar and Goossens Salgado families, I am taking the opportunity to commemorate Diana at almost two months of her passing. I met Diana for the first time when she came from Mexico to Sabah eight years ago, invited by my wife, Milena Salgado Lynn, also Mexican, to work as a wildlife veterinarian for the Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit. Milena tells me of the feisty, hard-working and committed woman with whom she shared a bedroom almost 20 years ago. Back then, Diana had dreams of always working for wildlife, something she had already volunteered for, even as a teenager, in a couple of zoos in Mexico. ‘Tia Dianin’ (my son’s nickname for her) was 28 years old when she arrived in Kota Kinabalu, full of hopes and still determined to make a difference for wildlife conservation. For administrative reasons, she obtained a work permit under Danau Girang Field Centre, as a wildlife anaesthetist, although she was always under the leadership of Dr Sen Nathan, manager of the Wildlife Rescue Unit and Assistant Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department. Diana was the most amazingly vibrant, feeling, loving, creative force you could imagine. She was full of passion for animals, domestic and wild. Unfortunately, she was also feeling very lonely in a world that is, most of the time, very unfair and brutal for someone fragile like Diana who could be manipulated and abused. After many years of suffering of severe chronic depression, borderline personality disorder, anorexia, and a toxic relationship with a person I won’t mention here, she decided to end her days because she felt hopeless, disappointed by those she trusted the most, and to finally find peace in her mind and heart. My honest expression of the pain, anger and guilt her suicide leaves behind will not bring her back, but it could help others facing the same kind of loss know they are not alone. I want to honour Diana’s struggles because they are struggles that many people around us traverse. I would like to make a strong call for greater awareness and conversation about the often-forbidden topics of mental illness and suicide, especially in Malaysia. For the past eight weeks, since Diana passed, I have been blaming myself for not being there for her, wondering what I missed. When persons kill themselves, they leave a body behind, they leave broken hearts behind, and they leave a question behind: why? “Why?” is the great mystery of suicide and for many people, like me, that question can haunt and torment them all their lives, robbing them of any chance of peace. Twenty-three years ago, my father committed suicide and until today, I’m still asking myself the question: why? No matter how challenging our relationship with Diana was, it also held moments of joy, friendship, compassion, happiness and achievement in wildlife conservation that deserve to be remembered and that I will be cherishing the rest of my life. I will always remember the first proboscis monkey we darted and collared, the massive elephant bull named Gading we tracked for hours in the forest in the Kinabatangan, finally darting and collaring him, the crocodile we restrained in order to set it up with a satellite tag, the Sunda pangolin we released back into the forest, the many discussions we had about wildlife poaching and trade, something we fought hard together and wanted to bring to an end. I will personally continue the fight in her memory and for the future generations. Even after her passing, Diana continued to save lives through the gift of organ donation. Her liver was transplanted to a 29 year-old lady who has been diagnosed with congenital hepatic fibrosis with portal hypertension since the age of 7. One kidney was given to a 44 year-old gentleman, another kidney went a 34 year-old lady. Both recipients suffered end stage kidney failure and had been put on dialysis for 18 years. Her right cornea was received by a 74 year-old gentleman with pseudophakic bullous keratopathy and the left one by a 34 year-old gentleman with impending perforation corneal ulcer. Diana’s heart valves are kept in the homograft bank at the National Heart Institute (IJN, Malaysia), and her bones at the Hospital University Sains Malaysia’s (HUSM) bone bank to be used when there is a patient in need. To this date, Diana already saved three human lives, restored the sight of two people, and her remaining tissues will benefit at least another 9 patients. Diana is a real unsung wildlife hero, a true Sabah’s wildlife warrior! She deserves respect and recognition for her achievements in wildlife conservation, for her fight to save animals, wild and domestic, in Sabah. To this end, I have decided to set up the Diana Ramirez Conservation Fund in her memory, aiming to support meaningful local conservation initiatives in Sabah, especially for the elephants that she loved so much. Diana, Sabah will not forget you!

Benoit Goossens Director of Danau Girang Field Centre  

DGFC is celebrating its tenth anniversary. The centre opened its doors in July 2008 and we’re marking the occasion with a scientific seminar focusing on the themes: “Landscape Ecology”, “Genetics, disease, ecotoxicology and trade”, and “Partners from research and community”. Presentations will be on the results of scientific projects that have been led by or in collaboration with DGFC, as well as on conservation activities carried out with a few of our partners. The DGFC’s Tenth Anniversary report can be consulted here.

State action plans for three species (proboscis monkey, banteng and clouded leopard) will be launched within DGFC’s tenth anniversary celebrations. In 2017 DGFC organised three international workshops focusing on each of those species with the aim of gathering all possible knowledge on them and promoting discussions among relevant stakeholders. The discussion from those workshops translated into 10-year management plans that have been supported by the Sabah Wildlife Department. It is expected they will be adopted by the State Cabinet next year.