Earth Matters

Numbers vary, but most estimates state that there are about 4,000 tigers left in the wild - a far cry from their previous 100,000 population. The Eye on the Tiger exhibition is a photography exhibition featuring tigers, from over 30 of the world’s leading professional wildlife photographers. Presented by the Royal Albert Hall and Save Wild Tigers, the exhibition - which first premiered in 2018 - showcased stunning framed shots of tigers, which were available for purchase, with profits going to tiger conservation projects via Save Wild Tigers. That exhibition is now coming to Malaysia - the first country outside of the UK to host the exhibition - to raise awareness and funds for the plight of wild tigers, which face threats from poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss, and human conflict. We find out more from Justine Vaz, the Executive Director of The Habitat Foundation and SC Shekar, a renowned photojournalist, whose work is featured in the exhibition.

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Rare earth mining is big business for countries with reserves, such as Malaysia, which has an estimated 16.1 billion tonnes of subterranean rare earth deposits. Rare earths are essential for green technology and climate goals, but their extraction and processing can cause environmental and social impacts. Malaysia aims to balance the economic benefits and environmental costs of rare earth mining, and to ensure transparency and accountability in the industry - but how? What are the challenges of rare earth mining? This, and plenty more are explored in Macaranga's recently published article, Unlocking Rare Earth Riches in Malaysia, co-written by environmental journalist Lee Kwai Han, and Macaranga's co-founder, Law Yao Hua. 

They join us to discuss the ethical and social implications of rare earth mining and consumption.

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The Green Wira Programme by Zero Waste Malaysia is aimed at empowering local school teachers with zero waste knowledge and skill sets to build zero waste schools in Malaysia. The programme ultimately aims to build a waste-free and sustainable future for Malaysia, starting from early education schools. We find out more from the Green Wira Programme Lead, Irene Chooi, from Zero Waste Malaysia.

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International Coastal Cleanup Day is a global event that has been running for more than 35 years. Volunteers all around the world engage and encourage their communities to take action by removing trash from beaches or oceans, identifying the sources of the litter, and inspiring change in beating marine debris pollution. Last year, Reef Check Malaysia had almost 10,000 volunteers and picked up an astounding 23,000 kg of trash! Julian Hyde, the General Manager of Reef Check Malaysia, joins us to share more about the idea behind coastal cleanups, but also to discuss why plastic debris remains a growing concern in the marine environment, how we can continue to tackle the plastic waste pollution, and why Malaysia should aspire towards having no more beach clean-ups in the future. 

Image Credit: Reef Check Malaysia

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The IPS-MPS '23 - The Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society (IPS) and the Malaysian Primatological Society (MPS), was recently held in Kuching, and the conference was themed "Primates and People: A New Horizon”. Malaysia is a highly primate diverse country with rich natural habitats but currently, most of the primates species in Malaysia are regarded as threatened. We discuss why this is the case, and also some of the major outcomes of this international conference that are seeking solutions to protect primates, with the conference co-organisers from the Malaysian Primatological Society (MPS) Dr Aini Hasanah binti Abd Mutalib (President of MPS, and Research Officer at the Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu), Dr Nadine Ruppert (Vice-President of MPS, and Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia) and Dr Yap Jo Leen (Assistant Secretary General of MPS, and Head of the Langur Project Penang).

Image Credit: Malaysian Primatological Society

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BFM turns 15 on the 4th of September 2023, and to commemorate, we're revisiting some of our best interviews from the years past, and playing you 15-minute snippets from three interviews (or thereabouts) featuring international guests we’ve featured on Earth Matters. In this collection, you will hear from Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, a Primatologist & Anthropologist, Richard Heinberg, a Journalist, Educator, and Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, and also climate activist Yeb Saño, the Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Post Carbon Institute/SIDC

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Youths United For Earth (YUFE) want to celebrate Malaysia's environmentalism, one youth at a time. The youth-led NGO aims to mobilise Malaysian youths for environmental action through environmental storytelling, grassroots community-building, and policy advocacy. The group recently received the Diana Award, set up in memory of the Princess of Wales, presented to 200 youths worldwide aged 9-25 to acknowledge their humanitarian work, and earlier this month, they were also recognised under the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)'s  30 Under 30 program, which recognises young people across the globe who are building a sustainable future through education. We speak to co-founders Max Han and Nurfatin Hamzah, to find out more about the group's efforts, and also ask them their hopes for future Malaysia.

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As we close yet another month in 2023, we also look back at some of the top environmental news from August, with the help of the co-founders of environmental journalism portal, Macaranga. Today, we're tackling three topics in particular, first the Nature Conservation Agreement in Sabah, considered by many to be a controversial carbon project - we'll break down what it's about, and why there are questions surrounding it. Next we discuss what happened at the IPS-MPS '23 - The Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society (IPS) and the Malaysian Primatological Society (MPS), which was held in Kuching, which was themed: "Primates and People: A New Horizon." Finally we cheer the good news that came out in late July, where Pahang will gazette 134,183ha of land for the Al-Sultan Abdullah Royal Tigers Reserve to boost wildlife conservation efforts - great news for our dwindling tiger population. Helping us to break all this down are the co-founders of Macaranga, Wong Siew Lyn and Law Yao Hua.

Image Credit: 123RF/International Primatological Society (IPS)/Global Tiger Forum

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Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta is our monthly tourism-themed series on Earth Matters, which aims to highlight lesser-known ecotourism spots right here in Malaysia. Done in collaboration with the Ecotourism & Conservation Society Malaysia (ECOMY), we want to take you back to the great outdoors, and experience the many off-the-beaten-track nature spots our country has to offer. For this episode, we're heading to Kinabatangan, in Sandakan, Sabah, specifically the Kinabatangan River. At 560 km long, the Kinabatangan River is Sabah’s longest river, and Malaysia’s second longest river. Whilst the upper reaches of the Kinabatangan River have been extensively logged, the lowland forest and mangroves have survived, and much of the lower Kinabatangan River is gazetted under the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. This vast floodplain forest supports a wide array of wildlife, from proboscis monkeys to Irrawaddy dolphins, and also a variety of other birds. Taking us cruising today is our intrepid guide on this series, Andrew Sebastian, the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ECOMY.

Image Credit: 123RF

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The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a global initiative focused on “making nature’s values visible”. Back in early July 2023, the United Nations Development Programme in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam (UNDP Malaysia) unveiled the results of site-level economic valuation exercises conducted in three protected areas in Malaysia. The study estimates that ecosystem services of Taman Negara National Park, Royal Belum State Park and Endau-Rompin National Park are respectively valued at over RM1.7 billion, RM531 million and RM 428 million annually, and the study was aimed at developing an evidence base for increased finances and investments for terrestrial protected area systems in Peninsular Malaysia. We speak to Niloy Banerjee (UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam) and Gan Pek Chuan (Head of Nature, Climate and Energy, UNDP Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam) to break down the results of this study, and also discuss why is it important to put tangible numerical values on habitats and green spaces.

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