Encompassing an area of roughly 460 square kilometers just off Northern Sabah's shores, right where Malaysian Borneo's landmass, small offshore islands and international waters intermingle with their Philippine counterparts in the Sulu Sea, lies the Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area - SIMCA, for friends.

It is formed by a beautiful environment of small uninhabited coral sand islands, patches of mangroves, seagrass beds, shallow sandy flats and an immense number of submerged coral reefs which host an enormous number of marine species, many of which still waiting to be scientifically described.

Its main pieces of dry land are the uninhabited and sun-scorched islands of Billean and Tegaipil and of course the fabled Lankayan, the only one with a human presence, seat of a world-famous, upper-class and most of all eco-friendly Dive Resort, sitting in splendid isolation on this tranquil little private island in the midst of the Sulu Sea. Why are we devoting so much room on our website to it?

Since our first visit to Lankayan - back in the 1990's - we immediately realized there was something special about the place. The island is strategically situated between the coast of Sabah and the myriad of islands spreading from the Southern Philippines - its very name means "last out post".

These have been for centuries the sea lanes of pirates, poachers, smugglers, even assassins. Fish life is unbelievably abundant, bringing fleets of trawlers from both countries and the occasional big game fisherman. It was two of these - Ricky Chin and Kenneth Chung, two friends from the quaint little coastal town of Sandakan - who discovered it several years ago during one of their big game fishing forays, and who made friends with Haji Bambi, the only man who back then was living there, after a life rich in adventures in the sea between Sabah and the Philippines.

To make a long story short, their meeting brought at last to the birth of Lankayan as we know it today - a small, pristine tropical island on which a quiet, elegant resorts caters to the needs of discerning divers and vacationers from the world over.

But to Ken Chung - the Managing Director of PSR, the dive resort company which also operates on Kapalai, close to the famous island of Sipadan, and in Sepilok - there was more to come. With the passing of time, Ken realized the intricate environment of Pulau Lankayan and its surrounding coral reefs were going to be endangered soon.

The very same marine life which attracted tourists and divers from all over the world was acting as a beacon for fishing boats in always greater numbers. Local fishermen and their counterparts from the Philippines would not hesitate in resorting to highly destructive fishing methods, largely and since a long time in use on SE Asian coral reefs: fish bombing (in which home-made and quite dangerous bombs consisting of a bottle full of fertilizer are thrown in the water or on coral reefs), cyanide fishing (in which the noxious chemical is squirted using a spray bottle among the nooks and crannies of the reef to stun fish later sold to Chinese restaurants) and trawling (with weighted nets which scrape the sea bottom floor, destroying everything in their path) would soon take their toll if left unchecked.

The first conservation efforts soon paid off: feeding a resident population of baby and juvenile blacktip sharks encouraged the endangered predators to stick close to the island reefs, away from roving fishermen in the open sea; scores of hawksbill and green turtle eggs, laid in the sand by their mothers, would be dug out and hatched inside fences which protected them from predators, and hatchlings would be carefully released into the sea; the cutting of trees and shrubs on the island would be kept to a minimum, and all trash and refuse would be carefully disposed of.

We were there all the time, twice a year, to see and follow the growth of an eco-friendly mentality on the island. Year after year, we noticed how the steps taken in the right direction would not interfere with the functioning of the resort, the relaxed, laid-back atmosphere of which still unfailingly impresses first-time visitors. The place was good - but it was getting better.

Big fish sightings became the norm - we missed the giant guitarfish but many others did not, and we were the first ever to capture on film the incubation of eggs in the oral cavity by the endemic Giant Jawfish Opistognathus dendriticus. We swam with huge Whale Sharks Rhincodon typus, we witnessed the violent courtship ritual and subsequent mating of Leopard Sharks Stegostoma fasciatum, we found the lovely Zebra Crab Zebrida adamsii and Coleman's Shrimp Periclemenes colemani tucked among the venomous spines of the fire urchins. Marine life was improving, the unmistakable signs were everywhere.

The hard and sometimes dangerous job of Resort Manager Ricky Chin - always ready to jump on a speedboat to chase away poaching fishermen - was giving welcome results. But then it became clear a single private operation would not be enough to properly patrol and manage such a huge area - more was needed.

Enter Reef Guardian, the private company which now works side-by-side with the Malaysian Government and the Wildlife Department of Sabah to manage and conserve the area. A lot of hard work, tireless lobbying and clever political maneuvering succeeds at last in transforming the dream in reality: in 2003 the Marine Protected Area (MCA) of the Sugud Islands is finally officially declared.

The playground of a lucky few has become a winning example of ecological conservation through the cooperation between private enterprise and the State: PSR, through it subsidiary Reef Guardian, protects and conserves the natural resources of the area, reinvesting part of the profits into its management. Patrol boats have been bought and equipped, staff has been employed and trained, marine biologists have been acquired to conduct surveys and a census of the marine life.

New methods of rubbish and non-solid waste are being fast developed and researched to first minimize and in the future completely avoid the seepage of nitrates (the bane of island resorts with no sewer systems) in the surrounding, pristine sea waters.

The huge problem of phosphates coming from oil plantations on the coast and being flooded out to sea - where they lead to plankton and algal blooming, putting the survival of coral colonies at risk - by rains and rivers is going to be tackled soon. And many more steps will surely be taken in the future to preserve, defend and re-habilitate the splendid, fragile marine ecosystem of Lankayan for us all to enjoy.

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