ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Wildlife authorities in Malaysia are also mounting an awareness campaign about the importance of the environment. They've launched a program in the state of Salangur (ph) to conserve the natural habitat. Malaysia's RTN explains how this environmental effort is fueled in part by economics.</s>SOLMI AHMAD, RTM (voice-over): June 5, was World Environment Day. On that day, a</s>SHAMIN AHMAD, MALAYSIAN CHAIRMAN, PACIFIC TRAVEL ASSOCIATION: Ecotourism has become quite important tourism, no? I mean, in the past, people just come and see just the sites and sounds of countries. But today in Malaysia, especially in Malaysia, people come to this country for ecotourism. And I think our country I think is blessed with fantastic natural heritage, flora and fauna, animals, you know? And I think we need to preserve that.</s>AHMAD: The selection of venue and trust of the fund was symbolic and in line with a team of this year's Environment Day 2000, the environmental millennium time to act. The Sumatran rhino, a flagship of Malaysia's ecosystem is an endangered species. Found historically in the tropical rainforest in mountainous forests of all Southeast Asia from Assam (ph) through Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo is not confined to the remote state, Wanton (ph) forest, up to 2,000 meters in altitude. It's hoped that a trust fund will lead to more elaborate and extensive programs to raise funds to sustain the rehabilitation of the rhinoceros and create greater awareness on the need of the public to be environmentally conscious and proactive environmentally. (on camera): The travel industry in Malaysia is equally responsible for practicing ever amount of ethics and amount of ethics and planning for sustainable use and future issue of natural resources. So the preservation of the wild rhino habitat is important in ensuring Malaysia's natural habitat are protected for the benefit of ecotourism. I'm Solmi Ahmad reporting for Radio-Television Malaysia for the CNN WORLD REPORT.
Malaysia Commits to Preserving Environment