Cases of critically endangered species bounding back into an environment from which they have long been absent are rather thin on the ground, but thankfully they do happen. All right, well, in this case “bounding back” isn’t really the appropriate term. Let’s make that “blooming back.” A rare agarwood species…

Rats. The mere name of these pesky rodents, which have long plagued communities around Malaysia, tends to trigger a feeling of unease. Rats routinely infest homes, kitchens and garbage dumps, serving as perennial vectors of disease for people and animals alike. That we have long known. It turns out, however,…

In the tropical rainforests of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, one of the world’s largest-ever ecological experiments is under way. Called the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project, the study encompasses roughly 20,000 hectares of rainforest that is actively being transformed into oil palm plantation.  Against a…

Indonesia’s second-largest pulp and paper producer Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) introduced a new sustainability policy in June.  The updated policy was greeted with guarded skepticism by environmental NGOs including Greenpeace, and it seems their doubt may have been well-founded. APRIL’s new policy stated that they had stopped all…