The first BEFF fringe screening, ‘BEFF365: Rescuing Rhinos and Protecting Pangolins’ was held on the 27th of September 2017, Wednesday, from 18:00 to 21:45 at BENTARAKATA, 3rd Floor, 86A, Lot 1, Gaya Street, Kota Kinabalu. The objective of this screening was to increase awareness on rhino and pangolin conservation in the region. The audience was treated to a special treat by ‘Pangolin’ filmmaker Katie Schuler who introduced her film through a short video. BENTARAKATA is an advocate of including the hearing-impaired community in all their events and in support of this, a professional sign language interpreter communicated accordingly to the audience.
The screening was followed by a Publika panel session with Dr. John Payne of BORA (Borneo Rhino Alliance) and Elisa Panjang, Pangolin Conservation Officer from Danau Girang.
Dr John Payne, Biologist
Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA)
John Payne is a biologist, resident in Malaysia and Indonesia since the 1970s. His interest centres on methods to prevent the extinction of endangered species, which requires viewing all individual animals in the context of population management, and how each individual might contribute to maintaining viable populations long term.
Elisa Panjang, Pangolin Conservation Officer
Danau Girang Field Centre
Elisa Panjang was born and raised at Sandakan, Sabah. Currently, she is doing her PhD at Cardiff University specializing in the landscape ecology and behaviour study of Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), a critically endangered species. Her research methods involved sign survey, camera trapping, satellite telemetry and survey on local knowledge. Elisa is also the Pangolin Conservation Officer for Danau Girang Field Centre, Sabah and responsible for the Pangolin conservation education program in Sabah. Elisa received her BSc (Hons.) in Conservation Biology and a MSc in Ecological Processes at Universiti Malaysia Sabah. She also holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from Politeknik Kota Kinabalu. In 2014, Elisa became a member of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group where she is actively involved in coordinating strategies for pangolin globally.
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