29 Oct 2024: October’s environmental news includes what civil society are doing to encourage folks to feed back on Malaysia’s long-awaited Climate Change Bill.

We also cover how it it is important to monitor poaching when mining operations are carried out within or close to protected areas, which is where Perhilitan and Op Bersepadu Khazanah (OBK) come in.

Finally, we discuss the abrupt cancellation of the multi-million ringgit Upper Baram Forest Area project in Sarawak.

1 Oct 2024: In this wrap-up of environmental news in Malaysia, we look at why environmental and rights groups are calling on the EU to classify Sarawak as “high risk” under new EUDR anti-deforestation regulations.

We also covered how the trial of the first perpetrators accused of rhino horn smuggling in Malaysia heard of a car chase by PERHILITAN to apprehend them.

In another court case, the Semai of Ulu Geruntum, Perak savoured victory against hydropower companies constructing a dam on their customary land.

9 September 2024: Ouch, the law! Covering court can be daunting for journalists with no law background – and even for those with legal training. We addressed that head-on in our workshop, ‘Covering Wildlife in Court’, held from 4–6 Sept.

And it worked! Before the workshop, 9 out of 12 participants said their confidence level was 5/10 or below when it came to covering trials. After two-and-a-half days of  media training and writing, that flipped: 8 out of 10 participants rated their confidence levels above 5!

Specifically, though, the skills training is to better tackle stories on wildlife crime. The over-exploitation of nature is one of the five leading causes of biodiversity loss in Malaysia and globally.

As such, the Macaranga Mentorship on Covering Wildlife Trade and Crime in Malaysia project over the next year seeks to explore issues as drivers of over-exploitation, right up to how courts are sentencing wildlife crimes.

The project involves this workshop and a months-long mentorship by Macaranga to produce long-form stories. It also involves a youth component, whereby we continue our collaboration with YUFE to produce social media content on this topic.

This court-focussed workshop was organised by Macaranga and hosted by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. The workshop lead was  Macaranga‘s Siew Lyn, the wildlife trade and crime component was delivered by TRAFFIC’s Elizabeth John and court reporting veteran Shaila Koshy patiently went through the steps on how to cover court. Thanks also to Justice for Wildlife Malaysia for your participation.

The ‘Macaranga Mentorship on Wildlife Trade and Crime in Malaysia’ project is supported by Internews Earth Journalism Network.