Illegal logging is, well, illegal in Sarawak, yet the practice seems to remain so common that you may not even have to search for evidence – you can literally stumble across it. Sarawak Forestry Corporation officials recently did just that when they ran into several large pile of illegally-felled trees. The…
Palm oil production is an integral part of Malaysia’s economy. On second thought, make that a vital part: the country is the commodity’s second largest producer in the world, after neighboring Indonesia, producing nearly 20 billion tons of palm oil annually. The industry, which accounts for up to 6% of…
In the Hollywood movie Medicine Man, an eccentric scientist, played by Scottish actor Sean Connery, seeks to save a rainforest from destruction as he believes that its unique biodiversity holds the ingredients of new cures for debilitating human diseases. A bit of celluloid fantasy? Hardly. The health of natural environments…
In perhaps one of Malaysia’s biggest environmental promises to date, the country has pledged to retain 50% of its forest cover. The commitment was made during the global climate change convention COP21 in December. It’s a brave promise, and will be a big win for Malaysia’s beautiful, rich, and quickly…
By She Mei Tan It is exciting and yet depressing when news headlines are splashed with the success of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)’s seizure of logs worth RM600,000, its raids of 48 log ponds, sawmills and business premises, and its freezing of 375 bank accounts belonging to individuals and…
A welcome departure from the Malaysian habit of favoring short-term economic growth over environmental responsibility and long-term sustainability has come – quite surprisingly – from the government. A Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department by the name of Datuk Mah Siew Keong recently took a trip to China. He…
Malaysia currently accounts for 39 percent of world palm oil production and 44 percent of world exports. This makes it one of the biggest players in the industry – one rife with environmental degradation and human rights violations. Pressed by international upset at rampant deforestation, ghastly carbon emissions and working…
Trying to shop sustainably can be a nightmare. Where a product came from, how it was made, what it’s packaged in, where it was shipped and how one can dispose of it all make a big impact on the environment, and it’s a mess sorting all that out for every…
The existence of a rare and minute class of snails – some just 0.03 inches in diameter – has just been discovered in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Though the snails are small – so small that researchers had to use a microscope to discover them in the wild – they are…
That our earth is in the grips of environmental crisis is something we have known for years. Global warming, deforestation, pollution and resource shortages have been big news for a long time. But that we are in the midst of the planet’s sixth mass extinction event – the cause of…
The single largest stretch of rainforest left standing in Southeast Asia sits on the tropical island of Borneo. Called the Heart of Borneo Rainforest, it is the world’s third largest rainforest and could be the most biodiverse. The forest is shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. It has been historically…
We all know that trees produce oxygen and cleanse the air of carbon dioxide, but a new study suggests that their mere presence can also prevent diseases and save lives. As strange as it sounds, this information is backed up by a comprehensive 18-year study published in the American Journal…
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…
One of the largest ecological experiments in recorded history is being conducted in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. It has to do with three hot-button issues – palm oil, deforestation, and biodiversity – and it hopes to find a way to point them all in the direction of sustainability. Launched in 2010,…
Spirits were lifted and hopes raised for sustainability last year when plans for Malaysia’s first geothermal power plant were publicized in Sabah, Eastern Malaysia. After the discovery of geothermal surface manifestations in a 50 square-kilometer area near the town of Tawau, it was determined that the area had the potential to…
Because haze in Indonesia often blows over to become haze in Malaysia, both countries often suffer from Indonesian fires. It is for this reason that Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister will soon be meeting with his Indonesian counterpart to discuss the matter of transboundary haze pollution. The Malaysian environmental…