Long features 1200-1500 wds
#LADANGHUTAN2
By 2021, at least half of forest reserve sites cleared for forest plantations in Peninsular Malaysia were not replanted. Since then, Kelantan has sped up its replanting, but Pahang remains a laggard.
#LADANGHUTAN
Forest plantations caused so much concern that the Malaysian National Land Council called for a pause on new projects in the peninsula. But 2.5 years into the moratorium, it is not appearing to work.
Listen to the Birds to Save Mangroves
When birds disappear from back mangroves, the mangrove forest’s very survival could be at stake.
Produced by: Ashley Yeong, Amar-Singh HSS & SL Wong
Edited by: YH Law
Co-published with the Malaysian Bird Report
Published: June 14, 2024
(The Velvet-fronted Nuthatch Sitta frontalis is absent in many mangroves in Selangor | Photo by Amar-Singh HSS)
Strolling Through Magical Matang Mangroves
A walk in a thriving , healthy mangrove forest is full of splendour, diversity and birdsong.
Produced by: Ashley Yeong, Amar Singh HSS & SL Wong; Edited by: YH Law
Co-published with the Malaysian Bird Report
Published: June 14, 2024
(Boardwalk in the Pusat Eko-Pelajaran Hutan Paya Laut Matang, Kuala Sepetang, Perak | Video by Ashley Yeong)
We already have a rubbish problem, but floods, sea-level rise and other climate crisis impacts make implementing solutions critical.
THE LANDFILL looms like a Titan, 27 meters into the sky, a stark symbol of Malaysians’ mounting waste problem. That is as tall as a 4-storey building. Its decaying mound emits a foul stench, all from the waste we generate.
This is the Jeram landfill in Selangor, which receives waste from 6 local councils in the Klang Valley. Within 10 minutes, 30 trucks unload their contents onto the ever-growing heap. Every day, 1,000 rubbish trucks dump on average, 3.7 million kilograms of waste into the landfill.
(Feature image: Scavengers like cattle egrets find sustenance in waste, but these heaps are getting more dangerous to animals and humans by the day. | Photo by Ashley Yeong)
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)
Horticulturists say producing lots of pitcher plants can conserve wild plants. Is it enough though, when ever more new species whet buyers’ appetites?
IN JULY 2023, a Filipino Facebook post appeared advertising the sale of a Malaysian tropical pitcher plant, Nepenthes berbulu. What was on sale were seeds, purportedly harvested on July 15. The thing is, this is a newly discovered species of pitcher plant from Malaysia’s Titiwangsa Mountains.
Its existence was made public a mere 4 months earlier in a scientific publication. The plant’s exact location was not disclosed and specimens were also only supposedly collected for research.
(Feature photo: Flooding the market with affordable propagated Nepenthes helps reduce pressure on wild plants. | Image: Bryan Yong)
Beberapa siri empangan kecil berikutan peralihan hijau negeri Perak cetuskan bantahan komuniti Orang Asli. Diterjemah oleh Shazni Bhai.
PERJALANAN pacuan empat roda melambung-lambung sepanjang laluan berliku mendaki Gunung Korbu di negeri Perak. Empat puluh minit ke pedalaman terdapat binaan konkrit didirikan berketinggian 5 meter atau hampir 2 tingkat.
Binaan itu adalah sebuah empangan hidro elektrik mini, yang akan dikerah bagi menjana 7 megawatt (MW) tenaga boleh diperbaharui untuk grid kuasa elektrik.
Ini adalah salah satu empangan hidro elektrik mini yang akan dibina di seluruh negeri ini. Walau pun bertujuan untuk memenuhi komitmen tenaga boleh diperbaharui kerajaan, konflik dengan komuniti Orang Asli dilihat makin meningkat.
(Imej utama: Tenaga boleh diperbaharui dijana oleh empangan hidro mini di Sungai Korbu, namun untuk siapa dan apa korbannya? | Foto: Ashley Yeong)
A series of small dams that is part of Perak’s green transition is making Orang Asli communities go up in arms.
IT IS A bumpy truck ride along the winding path up Gunung Korbu in Perak. Forty minutes in, a concrete structure stands 5 m, or nearly 2 floors, tall. This structure is a mini hydroelectric dam, tasked to generate 7 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy for the electricity grid.
This is one of the mini hydroelectric dams to be built throughout the state. While helping to meet the state’s renewable energy commitments, they appear to be in increasing conflict with Orang Asli communities.
(Feature photo: Renewable energy is generated by the Sungai Korbu mini hydro dam, but for whom and at what cost? | Image: Ashley Yeong)
As the climate crisis continues to impact rice production, heirloom rice could save the day, as the highlands farmers of Sarawak show.
AT LONG Semadoh, there is plenty of rice. In fact, there is so much that excess is sometimes fed to livestock.
“Some people from outside our village think it’s outrageous that we feed our heirloom rice to our pigs,” says villager Peter Tadam with a laugh. “But what’s wrong with giving good food — food we plant with our hands — to our livestock?”
(Feature photo: Beras Adan Merah is one of the Long Semadoh heirloom varieties that have been grown for generations | Image: Arieff Zafir)
