About us:

What's about the book?

Following the footsteps of Jo Leen Yap, the founder and director of Langur Project Penang (LPP) into the forest, where she spent approximately six years studying the life of an endangered species of primate in Penang, Malaysia, the dusky langurs (Trachypithecus obscurus).

Let's see how Jo Leen and her team worked against all odds in establishing the 1st urban canopy bridge in Malaysia to assist the dusky langurs and other arboreal wildlife to cross road safely.

Book languages: English & Mandarin.

Ammi Leong, an independent freelance children's book illustrator, joined forces with Jo Leen and her team of Langur Project Penang in voicing out for the dusky langurs and wildlife residents in Penang. Hence Ammi followed Jo Leen into the forest to learn about the lives of the dusky langurs and spent months illustrating the hard work of Jo Leen in pushing for the canopy bridge initiative in Malaysia. A portion from this book sale profit will be donated to Langur Project Penang (LPP) for dusky langur research, conservation, and education work.

This children's book is about passion and perseverance. The qualities of Jo Leen and her team members demonstrated that every individual could indeed create a positive impact on wildlife conservation in our homeland, Malaysia.

Review：

"This book on the work of a wildlife researcher and environmental educator to study the dusky langur is beautiful, informative, and inspiring. It tells us that with vision, determination, and care, we can make a change to make a better world. The story as well as the detailed information and the beautiful illustrations, form, like the canopy bridge in the story, a connection to readers young and old, so that we too may learn to care."

Linda Tan Lingard, publisher

The Author & The Illustrator:

   Jo Leen Yap, Dusky Jie Jie | Author 

Jo Leen is a wildlife researcher and environmental educator. Besides writing, the typical fieldwork days for Jo Leen and her assistant would be getting ready in the forest before sunrise, with their binoculars, GPS navigation device, notebook, and bulky camera equipment, waiting for the dusky langurs to wake up, and to follow the langurs for 7 to 12 hours. 

Jo Leen is a great leader who provides various background volunteers to do their parts in conservation. She leads her team of LPP with patience, dedication, and sincerity, to educate fellow Malaysians about the importance of dusky langurs. Jo Leen has been recognised with several acknowledgements, including being the first Malaysian to be awarded the Environmental Educators 30 Under 30 in the year 2018, featured in BBC Earth, and was a TEDxPetaling Street speaker. 

  Ammi Leong Yoke Mee | Illustrator

Ammi is an artist, illustrator and art teacher. She holds three different Diplomas: in Teachers and Trainers, Fine Art and Technology-Building. She has participated in numerous exhibitions since 2000. She finds inspiration in creating artworks from daily experiences and belief. Art has taught her to appreciate the beauty of creation, nature and diversity of cultures. She likes watercolour and enjoys using images to tell stories. Illustrated picture book “Anak Murid yang Memakai Kain Cawat”, “I Belong to the Forest”, “A seahorse story” etc. 

Details of the children book：

• Hardcover 
• Pages : 44 pages include cover 
• Size : 21.4cm (W) x 28cm (H)  
• Cover : matt lamination 
• Inner : print on matt art paper 
• Weight : 420gm  
• Complimentary TWO illustration art cards for the first 200 pre-order bookings

What is Langur Project Penang (LPP)?

The Langur Project Penang (LPP) is a citizen science-based primate research and conservation project that focuses on the ecology, behaviour, and road ecology of Dusky Langur (Trachypithecus obscurus) in Penang, Malaysia. LPP aims to serve as a platform for environmental research and education for students and the local community and lead to coexistence between wildlife and humans through research, conservation, and environmental education.

Langur Project Penang also serves as an open community for anyone wishing to get closer to their roots (i.e., nature) and cultivate compassion in modern society where empathy is already on the decline. People lack understanding of the negative consequences that our collective actions have on wild animals. Acknowledging this issue, LPP's community creates this environment where people can share their love for nature with each other; when this love spreads, it will lead Malaysia to progress toward a great nation that knows better than to exploit its animals, especially wildlife. 

Five years of ongoing research by LPP will allow us to better understand the changes in this species' behaviour in the human-altered ecosystem in Penang. Based on our research data, we were able to identify the three major threats toward dusky langurs and all wildlife residents in general: Habitat Fragmentation, Human-wildlife interface, and illegal wildlife pet trade. To help tackle the above threats, LPP has been carrying out various conservation efforts. From installing the 1st urban canopy bridge in Malaysia to safely assisting the dusky langurs and other arboreal wildlife to safely crossing the road to engaging with community members for urban wildlife sighting projects.

LPP also uses creative and fun approaches to educate the public through environmental education programmes on the importance of conserving habitat, no littering, keeping a safe distance from wildlife, no feeding monkeys, and so much more. A 'community is never complete without wildlife. Realising our connectedness with nature, LPP makes one of the most critical endeavours to bridge the gap between humans and wildlife.

The members of Langur Project Penang 

A Rainforest Environmental Education Programme organized by Langur Project Penang

The first Urban Canopy Bridge in Malaysia, installed by Langur Project Penang and APE Malaysia

Jo Leen climbing up 40 ft high monthly for camera trapping of the urban canopy bridge

A dusky langur crossing on the urban canopy bridge

A long-tailed macaque crossing on the urban canopy bridge

A plantain squirrel crossing on the urban canopy bridge

Why do we crowdfund? 

'A Friend of Dusky Langur' will be self-published under Ammi Art Studio, a registered enterprise under Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), with Jo Leen Yap as the author and Ammi Leong as the illustrator of the children book. As we don't have any sponsor or funding for this children's publication, we would like to start a pre-order and crowdfunding page to help us launch this book successfully. We are aiming at printing 3000 copies of 'A Friend of Dusky Langur.' Hence your support is much appreciated. Here, we break down the timeline of the book publication, as well as our budget list.

Timeline:

1st May 2021 – Final children book draft completion 

By 20th May 2021 – Pre-order starts on Mystartr.com 

20th June 2021 – Pre-order completion 

30th June 2021 – Printing starts 

20th July 2021 – Printing completion for 3000 copies 

25th July 2021 – Postage and delivery begins 

Budget list (costing):

Printing expens es (3000 copies) - RM20000

Designer's payment - RM1000

Marketing fees - RM1000

Salary for an assistant to manage postage and admin arrangement - RM800

Illustration card merchandise - RM1000

Cost of illustration, writing and editing. - RM12000

10% service fee to Mystartr - RM3580

Behind the scene:

The illustration process:

Ammi in the field observing the dusky langurs with Langur Project Penang: