Recently 4,515 hectares of a permanent forest reserve was degazetted in Terengganu, allowing for it to be turned into an oil palm plantation by a government-linked company, TDM Berhad. That means that on an area the size of more than 4,500 football fields where now trees stand will soon be lost,…
Let Melaka’s Chief Minister Idris Haron tell you, and not only are oil palm plantations not harmful to the environment; they are positively helpful. Touting the alleged successes of the state’s green policy recently, Idris stressed that the European Union is badly mistaken in planning to ban imports of palm…
The wild pygmy elephant was found dead near a small river at an oil palm plantation in Tawau. The pachyderm’s remains were riddled with three bullets. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out what happened: the bull elephant had been killed either by plantation workers or local farmers…
Sunda clouded leopards aren’t just rare. They are also highly elusive. They are so elusive in fact that mere sightings of them can qualify as newsworthy occurrences. Thus the feat of a foreign photographer in capturing on camera a female clouded leopard walking through a forest with her two cubs…
We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will lead to an elimination of tariffs for about 85% of rubber products from Malaysia, while tariffs on other rubber products will be phased out within 16 years from 2018, when…
Oil palm plantations are – wait for it – great microcosms of biodiversity. If, that is, we are to believe Pierre Bois d’Enghien, an agronomist and environmental expert. Writing in an op-ed in The Star newspaper and citing several studies from around the world, Bois d’Enghien lays out his case….
Insects play an important role in ecosystems with plants relying on the wee critters to facilitate their reproduction through pollination. Their bodies are naturally designed to carry pollen far and wide, thereby fertilizing diverse kinds of plants while they forage for nectar. Among the plants that insects help pollinate are oil…