Tag Archives: local community

Menghormati dan Bekerjasama dengan Orang Asal yang Berpindah

Wong Pui May berkongsi pengalaman Tok Batin Mohammad bin Pokok di Bengkel Dana +20, Jordan. Tok Batin Batek dari Kelantan menambah suaranya kepada seruan antarabangsa untuk bekerjasama dengan ahli komuniti dalam hal berkenaan pemuliharaan dan pembangunan.

Dunia kita kini menghadapi pelbagai ancaman, termasuk perubahan iklim dan kemusnahan alam semula jadi yang mengugat jaminan makanan, merosakkan harta benda dan membahayakan nyawa.

Terdapat banyak yang dapat dipelajari daripada cara hidup Orang Asal yang telah diamalkan secara turun-temurun yang dapat meningkatkan daya tahan alam semula jadi melalui pengurusan tanah dan air yang berkesan.

Inilah pesanan peserta dalam perbincangan antarabangsa yang diadakan pada September lalu, 20 tahun selepas Pengisytiharan Dana, di Rizab Alam Semula Jadi Wadi Dana, Jordan.

(Gambar: Tok Batin Mohammad bin Pokok [tengah] berbincang dengan peserta-peserta Bengkel Dana +20 di Jordan September lalu. |  Gambar oleh Wong Pui May)

Continue reading Menghormati dan Bekerjasama dengan Orang Asal yang Berpindah

Costs Rise For All to Green Pig Farms

Pig farmers must install expensive wastewater treatment systems to curb environmental pollution. Add this to rising costs and diseases, and alarm bells ring about pork prices and supply. Part 2 of 2.

THERE ARE many ways an interview about pigs can begin. Wong Soon Ping of Kampung Selamat, Penang showed off a whole roast duck on a baking tray. Half of it was coated in truffle powder. “I’m trying a new recipe!”

It turns out roast ducks are a new product for Soon Ping, a third-generation pig farmer who had sold his pig farm in November 2021 and now processes and distributes pork. His village is one of the two pig farming areas in the state, notorious for decades-long river pollution.

(Photo: Farms that cannot afford to modernise operations call it a day |  Pic by Lee Kwai Han)

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When Laws Put the Brakes on Pig Farm Pollution

Notorious for its river polluting pig farms, Penang is mandating its farms modernise or shut down. But pig farms might not be the only, or main polluters along the whole river. Will this mandate bring relief to the ecosystem and impacted communities? Part 1 of 2.

A STENCH drifts up the 5 metres from the river to the bridge where we are standing. A sour, nasty smell, it lingers even after we leave the site. A local says the smelly river water comes from Kampung Valdor.

Their wastewater has been tarred for impacting everything from paddy fields and fisheries to high-end residential areas. But change is in the air as pig farming legislation and regulations kick in, though it is unclear if they will actually solve river pollution.

(Photo: The polluted waterway from Kampung Selamat (right) flows into Sungai Kereh; note the healthy riverine vegetation, a sign of possible excessive nutrients  |  Pic by SL Wong)

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Locals Feeling Loss of Wild Pigs

African Swine Fever in Sabah has devastated wild pig numbers since February last year. Has this hurt the Kadazandusun-Murut communities, whose livelihood and culture are tied to this wildlife? Part 2 of a series on the impacts of the disease.

LEAN HUNTING dogs eagerly patrol the dirt roads, viewing strangers with caution. Stands of oil palm, rubber and food trees surround houses with zinc roofs. A large cross marks St Bede’s Catholic church.

This is Kampung Pangas Ulu, a village in Keningau, Sabah.

Like all rural indigenous Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) villages, this kampung was once surrounded by forests. And one forest animal, babi hutan, the Bornean bearded pig (Sus barbatus), was integral to their culture and identity.

(Photo: All dressed up and no pigs to hunt: Ahmed bin Pintin (right) with his buddy and hunting dogs  | Pic by Alven Chang)

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Locals Make Terrapin Conservation Successful

When floods hit Kemaman, terrapin conservationist Chen Pelf Nyok raised funds to help her local partners who had supported conservation.

In early January, floods hit Kemaman, Terengganu, the district where Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia (TCS), the organization I lead, is based.

Many villages were flooded. My husband asked if we should begin raising funds to help the villagers who were our project partners.

I said no.

(Photo: Flood devastated Kemaman, Terengganu, in early January 2021. Pic from Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia.)

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Islander Partners Improve Resource Management

Locals must be involved in managing their own islands and island resources, says Julian Hyde. It is better for community empowerment and for nature.

“CO-MANAGEMENT of natural resources”: It is in the National Policy on Biological Diversity; it is in the Convention on Biodiversity (of which Malaysia is a signatory); it is in the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is everywhere, except in the communities where it matters most.

(Photo: All together now: Tioman islanders and NGO members remove reef-smothering ghost nets. Pic by Reef Check Malaysia)

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