Last year officials of  the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) rescued creatures belonging to 150 species. You’ve read that right: In 2017 wildlife officials handled nearly 3,000 cases of wildlife trafficking in which animals from a whopping 150 species, according to Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, minister of Natural Resources and…

Within the space of just five years, between 2012 and 2017, officials have recorded a total of 2,444 road accidents involving wild animals belonging to 30 species. That means that there is at least one deadly road accident involving a wild animal every single day of the year. And that’s…

Two years after a moratorium on all bauxite mining was imposed in Pahang, local stockpiles have still not been cleared. Some 10 tons of bauxite still remains. In other words, the clear-up has been manifestly sluggish, even by local standards, to say the least. And so it goes. What seemed…

Malaysia’s own giant panda couple, Liang Liang and Xing Xing, have just welcomed their second cub. The female newborn, which weighed a mere 190gm at birth, is the second daughter and the younger sibling of the two adult pandas’ first cub, Nuan Nuan, who was born on August 18 in 2015…

A chicken farm making fertilizer from chicken droppings in Johor let large amounts of ammonia leach into the Johor River sporadically. As a result, much of the river’s water became badly polluted, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without clean tap water. A local waterworks also had to close down…

The sooner young Malaysians become aware of environmental issues, the better. And we can’t just expect children to develop a passion for the environment on their own. We have to teach them to appreciate the natural bounty of Malaysia and we have to teach them how to be good stewards…

Some people see no difference between consuming chicken meat or the meat of protected animals like pangolins. Others positively seek the gastronomic thrill, as they see it, of consuming the meat of rare and “exotic” animals. One can make the argument, as many people have duly done, that ethically speaking…

Two pygmy elephants and a hundred sea turtles. These are just the latest victims of poachers in Sabah. Conservationists and government officials are duly outraged at the continuing slaughter of the state’s endangered wildlife. “The recent discovery of hundreds of turtle bone fragments and turtle carcasses floating in the sea…

At last Malaysian authorities are stepping up their efforts to clamp down on illegal bauxite mining in Pahang. A few days ago the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested a senior Customs officer and nine officials from the Pahang Land and Mineral Office (PTG) for allegedly abetting miners in their illegal…

Beautiful beaches. World-class diving spots. Scenic forests. Picturesque landscapes. Misty mountaintops. Fantastic biodiversity. Malaysia is a land of unsurpassed natural beauty with unique treasures. Not surprisingly, tourists from around the world keep flocking to the country. Last year alone nearly 27 million visitors came, generating MR82 billion in tourism income….

As the peak of the dry seasons looms, so does the risk of forest fires. And forest fires in Malaysia and Indonesia can spell disaster. To forestall that eventuality, Malaysia is ready to send firefighters to Indonesia to help extinguish open fires, according to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan…

Global warming will wreak havoc with Malaysia’s ecosystems. It will decimate wildlife, destroy coral reefs and cause crops to fail. And it will also cause the country to lose as much as a tenth of its current land area. That’s because rising sea levels will inundate plenty of islands and…

Beachfront properties are highly prized across Malaysia by developers, and for good reason. Sea views are a great selling point for any new houses, condominiums or bungalows. Yet coastal development often harms marine ecosystems in various ways. They can also harm fragile coral reefs. A case in point is the…

If Malaysia’s beleaguered tigers have something to fear more than poaching, it’s habitat loss. The majestic predators have seen their numbers drop precipitously over the past decades in tandem with the loss of the country’s forests and jungles. Once there were thousands of tigers roaming vast swathes of jungle. Today, a mere 340 tigers (at most)…

It’s not as if we’ve needed further proof that wildlife wardens and forestry officials across Malaysia can face significant dangers, but here it is: an enforcement officer of Terengganu’s State Forestry Department was shot during a raid on an illegal logging site. The officer was part of a 10-man team inspecting an illegal logging…

Another three months. That’s how long Malaysia’s government may extend the moratorium on bauxite mining in Pahang. A good thing, too, all things considered. The ban has been in place, through repeated extensions, since January 15 last year and is due to expire at the end of this month. The cause…