All posts by Yao Hua Law

In-Depth

Conserving Arowanas Needs More Than Releasing Fish

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The Asian arowana is a fish, a paradox, and an ongoing test of how commercial trade of an endangered animal could help conserve it.  

The fish, once a common food fish for locals from Cambodia to Indonesia, shot to stardom among pet fish enthusiasts and was hunted to rarity in rivers and lakes. But fish breeders learned to rear Asian arowanas in muddy ponds. Every year, hundreds of thousands of farmed Asian arowanas are exported worldwide, many of them from Malaysia.

(Feature image: A golden Asian arowana. | Photo by Eric Chiang/Macaranga)

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Insight

Explainer: El Niño and Southeast Asia

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Weather happens because nature seeks stability. Excess heat, moisture or pressure in one place will move to fill gaps elsewhere. Imagine pouring water into a pool: the water level will rise instantly at one end before it flows to the lower ends of the pool.

What holds true for a pool also holds true for the oceans. At the Pacific Ocean, heat, winds and moisture interact in a major climate phenomenon called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO alternates among three phases, of which El Niño is the warm phase. 

（Image: This year, sea surface temperature in the eastern Pacific Ocean has been warming up more than average. | Image by European Space Agency)

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Insight

What’s in store, El Niño?

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El Nino reliably warms up Malaysia but its impact on rainfall is more nuanced and spotty. Still, as global warming drives more extreme weather events, experts foresee El Niño causing more droughts too.

LAST MONTH must have felt like a furnace for many people across the world. Hundreds of millions suffered heatwaves in India, Europe and the United States. Dozens died. Since 1850, humans have waged world wars and landed rovers on Mars, but we have never stifled in a warmer month than July 2023.

July also marked the return of a natural climate phenomenon called El Niño. Last observed in 2019, El Niño tends to lead to warmer and drier months in tropical Asia. Scientists expect this El Niño to last through March 2024. 

(Photo: At its Weather Operation Centre in Selangor, the Malaysian Meteorological Department constantly monitors the country’s weather using satellite and radar data. | Pic by YH Law)

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Macaranga

为油棕而破坏森林与老虎栖息地，价值何在？

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YP Olio 有限公司最近从联邦环境局获得允准在8498公顷的地块上清除森林并种植油棕。

该项目地块位于彭亨州的珍妮-百乐综合森林内，这是一个具有丰富生物多样性和生态价值的天然森林。在项目地块里还有两座原住民村落，村民声称该地方是他们的习俗地。

Macaranga发现，该项目将给发展商带来巨大的利益，而政府和社会将付出高昂的代价。此外，项目对森林的破坏将危及已经濒危的马来亚虎。

该项目对马来西亚油棕业的声誉有什么影响？ 对于彭亨州政府和发展商来说，最适当的选择又是什么？

第一篇：为卖不出去的油棕砍伐森林

第二篇：承诺保育老虎，却在彭亨破坏栖息地

第三篇：原住民为森林放弃新房子

 

Macaranga

Apa nilainya musnah hutan dan habitat harimau demi kelapa sawit?

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Syarikat YP Olio Sdn Bhd baru menerima kelulusan daripada Jabatan Alam Sekitar untuk menebang kawasan hutan 8,498 ha untuk dijadikan ladang kelapa sawit.

Tapak itu terletak dalam kompleks hutan Chini-Bera, Pahang, sebuah hutan asli yang cukup kaya dengan kepelbagaian biologi dan nilai-nilai ekologi. Terdapat juga dua kampung Orang Asli dalam tapak projek yang menuntut kawasan itu sebagai tanah adat mereka.

Siasatan Macaranga mendapati bahawa projek ini membawa manfaat besar kepada pihak pemaju, manakala pihak kerajaan dan masyarakat menanggung kos yang tinggi. Tambahan pula, kemusnahan hutan itu akan menjejas populasi harimau Malaya yang sudahpun hampir pupus.

Apakah kesan projek tersebut ke atas reputasi kemampanan industri kelapa sawit di Malaysia? Apakah pilihan paling wajar bagi pihak kerajaan Pahang dan pemaju?

Bahagian 1: Menebang Hutan Demi Kelapa Sawit Yang Takkan Terjual

Bahagian 2: Biarpun Sudah Berjanji, Habitat Harimau di Pahang Tetap Dimusnahkan

Bahagian 3: Orang Asli Menolak Tawaran Rumah Baharu Untuk Hutan

Insight

Orang Asli Reject New Houses for Forests

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After guarding a blockade against loggers for 16 months, a group of Orang Asli in Pahang is bringing their fight to the courts. The Kampung Mesau villagers have just filed a summons against the Pahang government and a developer for violating their customary rights. Part 3 of 3.

This story is produced in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.

[Versi Bahasa Malaysia] [即将发布：中文版]

RICE COOKS in a soot-covered pot behind Rani Jilal. The 72-year-old man sits on bare ground in his hut. He is a senior member of the Temoq Orang Asli of Kampung Mesau in the Chini-Bera forests, Pahang.

Behind Rani, the boiling rice spills out of the pot into the wood fire. He ignores the sizzle. He is talking about his fear that his kin would be chased off the land they claim as their customary right. He has seen how swiftly developers can tear their world apart.

(Photo: The villagers of Kampung Mesau in Pahang built a blockade to save their forests from loggers. After 16 months of sleeping by the blockade, they have brought their fight to the High Court. | Pic by YH Law)

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Insight

Cutting the Chini-Bera Forests for Oil Palm that Can’t Sell

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YP Olio Sdn Bhd has just received approval from the Department of Environment to turn a sprawling forest in Pahang into oil palm. But evidence suggests the plantation will fail to get mandatory certification and license. So, why cut the forest? Part 1 of 3.

This story is produced in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.

[Versi Bahasa Malaysia] [中文版]

FOR MUCH of 2020 and 2021, loggers cleared huge tracts of forest on private land in southeastern Pahang. The site used to be part of a forest reserve in the Chini-Bera forest complex. Now, silty logging roads wind across the shrubby landscape.

The logging had stopped at a fork in a main logging road since June 2021. Perhaps the loggers were deterred by the wooden blockade erected there by the local Orang Asli. Perhaps the landowner, YP Olio Sdn Bhd, was waiting for authorities’ approval of its environmental impact assessment (EIA) report.

(Photo: In Pahang, logging on YP Olio Sdn Bhd’s 8,498 ha land stops at a blockade set up by Orang Asli. | Pic by YH Law)

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