GEF SGP Malaysia commenced its operations in July 1999 in Malaysia, a coastal tropical country, rich in biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystems, and is considered to be one of “12 mega-(bio)diverse” countries in the world, with

• the recruitment of a National Coordinator (NC) for GEF SGP Malaysia, based at the UNDP Malaysia Country Office,
• the establishment of a multi-stakeholder National Steering Committee (NSC) for GEF SGP Malaysia, chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), and
• the preparation and adoption of a Country Programme Strategy (CPS) for GEF SGP Malaysia, which was approved in April 2000.

And as of June 2000, GEF SGP Malaysia began to call for the submission of proposals, for Full Projects and/or for Planning Grants, which the GEF SGP Malaysia NSC would screen, select and approve the successful project proposals, to be followed up by GEF SGP Malaysia entering into legally-binding MOAs with the grantees concerned.

Operationally, GEF SGP Malaysia is oriented towards supporting the interventions by NGOs, CBOs and local communities throughout Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak that are designed to:

• Build the capacity and capability of NGOs, CBOs and local communities towards effectively planning, implementing and monitoring activities that promote sustainable livelihoods and sustainable development, while also conserving the environment, its natural resources and ecosystems;
• Initiate and institutionalise measures and mechanisms to foster the sustainability of activities undertaken by NGOs, CBOs and local communities in the GEF Focal Areas;
• Remove barriers from realising the long-term solutions and successes in overcoming challenges which cross-cut the socio-economical and environmental interface;
• Facilitate resource mobilisation for the leveraging of additional funds by promoting smart partnerships and strategic alliances among the various stakeholders, including representatives of the donor community; and
• Enhance up-stream and down-stream multi-stakeholder, and sectoral and cross-sectoral partnerships to increase efficacy and efficiency, especially on the sharing and exchanging of technical skills, innovative approaches, potential pitfalls, acquired capacities, documented experiences, learned lessons, appropriate indicators, etc.

The mission and mandate of GEF SGP Malaysia could also be further augmented, over time and space, to escalate its impacts and implications, by incorporating effective and reliable strategies in the GEF Focal Areas, by including locally adapted and appropriate strategies for:

• Focusing, where and if applicable, interventions in selected geographical eco-regions (e.g. at predetermined sites in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Sarawak) or in selected thematic GEF Focal Areas (e.g. primarily in biodiversity), with a view to maximise the ensuing impacts and implications of such initiatives;
• Identifying, and targeting, intermediary NGOs, to provide the technical training and capacity building required by some CBOs and local communities to adequately address their sustainable livelihood concerns and challenges;
• Networking among all the relevant stakeholders, especially among the like-minded NGOs, CBOs and local communities, in order to enhance their roles and responsibilities in addressing and resolving environmental problems linked to the GEF Focal Areas.
• Forging strategic partnerships with all the stakeholders, particularly the NGOs, CBOs and local communities, as well as with potential donors, to ensure their meaningful participation and involvement in attempts to overcome environmental issues and initiatives in the GEF Focal Areas, including their cooperation and collaboration in resource mobilization and sustainability.
• Showcasing the spectrum of innovative interventions successfully accomplished by NGOs, CBOs and local communities in the GEF Focal Areas, especially those also accompanied by sustainable livelihoods, with a view towards encouraging the up-scaling, replication and mainstreaming of their respective policies, processes and practices.

However, since the start of GEF Operational Phase 4, GEF SGP Malaysia has become a purely GEF RAF (GEF Resource Allocation Framework) country and country programme, where such GEF RAF funds are only available SGP interventions in the GEF Focal Areas of biodiversity and climate change.

Further, GEF SGP Malaysia would continue to fund civil society and non-profit NGOs, CBOs and IPOs to implement NSC-approved projects that would foster sustainable livelihood and sustainable development, by conserving the environment, natural resources and ecosystems, especially with regard to the GEF Focal Areas of biodiversity and climate change, by contributing towards the alleviation of poverty, through alternative income generation, and by empowering local communities to become much more self-reliant and self-determinant in making and pursuing their own choices and decisions on their status, welfare and future, particularly among the marginalized, impoverished and disadvantaged, including the indigenous peoples throughout Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.

Notably, the GEF RAF funds committed to it from the GoM would also ensure sustained support for SGP Malaysia projects with outcomes and deliverables of national, regional and global environmental benefit under the GEF FAs of BD and CC, including:

• Building the capacity and capability of civil society NGOs, CBOs and IPOs to initiate and implement sustainable development and sustainable livelihood and environmental imperatives, especially on the conservation of BD and the mitigation of CC, that would directly benefit local communities and their environments, natural resources and ecosystems.
• Facilitating innovative conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, including on integrated organic farming and agro-biodiversity-based PGR for food and agriculture, and also of endangered or endemic species of flora and fauna, including medicinal plants and herbs, natural resources and ecosystems.
• Promoting alternative income generation for sustainable livelihoods, including for ecotourism, handicraft making, marketing of value-added downstream consumer products, and also piloting micro-credit schemes for the start up costs of cottage industries and other economic initiatives, enterprises and businesses deemed to be suitable and worthwhile pursuing.
• Installing non-fossil fuel or timber-based sources of power and electricity, especially among local communities in the rural and remote parts of Malaysia, thereby mitigating their contributions to climate change and to biodiversity loss, besides enhancing the use of solar power, micro-hydro power and other renewable sources of sources, and by encouraging energy efficiency and renewable energy supply among urban communities, residents associations, industrial sectors, construction plants and manufacturing processes.
• Enabling the different communities and categories people throughout Malaysia, particularly the IPs, to become much more self-reliant, self-sufficient and self-determinant, while also facilitating the appropriate documentation of their traditional knowledge (TK) for its sustainability, especially in an era of ever-increasing globalization, urbanization and modernization, but in manners and methods that would ensure that the holders of TK would receive due recognition and due share of any benefits ensuing from the use of their TK wisdom, culture and practice.

Hence, in summary,

i) In the GEF Focal Area of biodiversity, sectors to be pursued by GEF SGP Malaysia would include:

• conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystems, including of forests, wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, peat swamps, etc., be they terrestrial, marine, estuarine, freshwater or aerial in nature;
• integrated organic farming;
• agrobiodiversity-based sustainable agriculture and food security;
• non-timber forestry products;
• medicinal plants and herbs;
• management of wastes and composting;
• traditional knowledge and equitable access and proper benefit sharing of anything valuable emerging from traditional knowledge (TK) with its holders, especially the IPs throughout Malaysia; eco-tourism, cultural handicrafts, value-added downstream products, micro-credit schemes, etc.

ii) In the GEF Focal Areas of climate change, sectors to be pursued by GEF SGP Malaysia would include:

• energy efficiency and renewable energy in urban and industrial areas;
• public and mass transport systems;
• non-timber or non-fuel-wood sources of energy;
• non-open-burning and non-open-incineration of wastes; and
• alternative energy supply, like solar power, micro-hydro power, and wind-power; mitigation of GHG emissions, etc.

Meanwhile, GEF SGP Malaysia would also continue to play its cooperate and collaborate role in the Malaysian Government’s GEF FSPs and MSPs, particularly in sectors and areas where civil society NGOs, CBOs and IPOs might posses the additional expertise, experience and familiarity required for their cost-effective and cost-efficient implementation, especially in any small grants components of the GEF FSPs.

Finally, to enhance and elevate its relevance and efficacy, GEF SGP Malaysia would also strengthen its partnerships among NGOs, CBOs, IPOs, the Malaysian Government and other stakeholders to escalate their capacity and capability to foster sustainable livelihoods, thereby fulfilling their contributions towards national sustainable development, while also facilitating the Malaysian Government to satisfy the obligations of the country under the MEAs of the GEF Focal Areas, especially of biodiversity and climate change, by playing their respective GEF SGP Malaysia- supported roles and responsibilities, at the community level, and in the spirit of thinking globally, acting locally.