It was a big day for Pinky the gibbon recently as the endangered primate was moved from her enclosure in Sunway Lagoon’s Wildlife Park, to a brand new home on the water. This Upcycled Floating Island contains everything she could want, from connected swinging ropes and raised platforms to lush green foliage and grass.

The latest attraction at Malaysia’s favourite water park, the Island was crafted from some 1.5 tons of waste material, including styrofoam, scrap metal, plastic bottles and drums. Engineers worked for over a year to create the unique habitat that now houses the gibbon and floats on the lagoon.

The project is part of Sunway’s robust sustainable efforts which are modelled after the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (UNSDG), and here in particular Goal 15 – to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss – is underscored.

The project will be the first of many that Sunway Lagoon plans to introduce as a way of raising eco-awareness and pushing forward the UNSDG. Proper waste management and reduction of landfills need to be top of everyone’s mind in order for systematic change to occur – and it is hoped that the Upcycled Floating Island plants those seeds in all who see it.

Fishy Fun!

Visitors can now also have fun feeding the fish in the lake, which has seen a complete rejuvenation since being classified as Mesotrophic: having a moderate concentration of nutrients, such as phosphates, nitrates and other chemicals that can lead to destructive weed growth and algae blooms.

To combat this, innovative diffuser technology was installed in 2011 introducing compressed air into the bottom of the lake followed by dosing of beneficial bacteria and enzymes. The water has since seen a transformation and is home flourishing schools of freshwater fish including Malaysian Red Mahseer, Jawa Barb, Rohu, Bala Shark, Sultan Fish Giant Gourami, Arapaima, Bighead Carp, Tinfoil Barb.

To get a better view of the floating island and Pinky, visitors can also take a pontoon boat tour which calmly circles the lagoon for a relaxed ride. Next time you visit Sunway Lagoon, make sure to say hi to Pinky and then do your part to go green and help save Earth!