Earth Matters

Bukit Kiara is a much loved green lung in our rather green lung deprived city centre. A former rubber estate, the area is now a popular spot for thousands of Klang Valley residents in search of ways to commune with nature. The area is not fully gazetted though, and the NGO Friends of Bukit Kiara (FoBK) have long been championing the protection and preservation of this area, and are always working towards raising awareness of the importance of keeping Bukit Kiara green and intact. They are organising FOBK Bukit Kiara Hill Walk in conjunction with Earth Day 2023 on the 21st of May, and we find out more about this from Leon Koay, the President of FOBK, who will also remind us about the many wonders found in this urban forest, including the world’s largest firefly!

Image Credit: Facebook

Bukit Kiara is a much loved green lung in our rather green lung deprived city centre. A former rubber estate, the area is now a popular spot for thousands of Klang Valley residents in search of ways to commune with nature. The area is not fully gazetted though, and the NGO Friends of Bukit Kiara (FoBK) have long been championing the protection and preservation of this area, and are always working towards raising awareness of the importance of keeping Bukit Kiara green and intact. They are organising FOBK Bukit Kiara Hill Walk in conjunction with Earth Day 2023 on the 21st of May, and we find out more about this from Leon Koay, the President of FOBK, who will also remind us about the many wonders found in this urban forest, including the world’s largest firefly!

Image Credit: Facebook

The Penang South Islands (PSI) project was initially a massive reclamation project to create three islands off the southern coast of Penang island. The RM10 billion reclamation project is a state government initiative to finance the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan through the reclamation of the three islands covering 1,620ha off Permatang Damar Laut. The project has faced fierce and vociferous opposition from many, including environmentalists and local fishermen. We catch up with Meenakshi Raman, the President of Sahabat Alam Malaysia, to discuss the negative social and environmental impacts this project is expected to cause, and why concerned groups are still calling for the project to be scrapped, despite the project now being scaled down by 49% to one island, from the original three.

Image Credit: Facebook

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Environmental watchdog RimbaWatch have been hard at work, keeping an eye on forests by using open source data and analytics, and shining a spotlight on deforestation in Malaysia, while also highlighting environmental abuses. They recently revealed a one-stop-centre for data on deforestation on their website, which for the first time allows users to visualise past and future deforestation on the data portal. They also just released their quarterly report, covering Jan-March 2023, which has identified 9,372ha of new threats to forests, and six land rights conflicts involving indigenous communities. We get updates from Adam Farhan, the co-founder and director of RimbaWatch.

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has now published the synthesis report of its sixth assessment report (AR6). This forms the final part of the sixth assessment cycle, which kicked off in 2015. For eight years, the experts analysed thousands of scientific publications, in order to make it easier for people like us and also policy makers to understand global warming, as well as solutions on how to tackle it. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, describes it, the climate time-bomb is ticking, and the IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity. We speak to two experts, Professor Jim Skea CBE (Co-Chair, Working Group III, IPCC) and Prof Dr Joy Jacqueline Pereira (Principal Research Fellow, SEADPRI-UKM and Vice-Chair, Working Group II, IPCC) about the synthesis report, and why it is a fundamental policy document to shape climate action during this pivotal decade.

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Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta is a 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. In our third episode, we head over to Port Dickson, but specifically to the areas surrounding Tanjung Tuan, including Bukit Batu Putih at Cape Rachado. From the limestone summit, you get a full panoramic view of Port Dickson's entire coastline - which is accessible via a simple trek through the jungle from the lighthouse. Guiding us again is Andrew Sebastian, the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of the Ecotourism & Conservation Society Malaysia (ECOMY), and he’ll also let you in on how to get to a hidden beach too! 

Listen to our previous episodes in the series:

Episode 1: Kuala Tahan

Episode 2: Pulau Bangau in Teluk Intan

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We catch up with local, lovable environmental journalism portal Macaranga, for a roundup of top environmental news from April 2023. This month, we discuss court cases and petitions galore over the defence of traditional indigenous lands, namely involving the Semai tribe from Pos Lanai, and the Temiar tribe of Kampung Cunex, and also the Sarawak NGO Save Rivers, who are fighting a lawsuit by a timber company over indigenous rights claims. Then we turn our attention to the issue of food waste, and some interesting facts on why waste happens, based on findings by an NGO distributing leftover food. Finally, we encourage you to attend Borneo Heart in Kuala Lumpur, curated by Sabah artist Yee I-Lann, which looks at indigenous identity through weaving.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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The recent unwelcome visit by the haze in the region was another unpleasant reminder that the issue of transboundary haze is far from resolved. Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad reportedly said that the haze was caused by peat fires and open burning in several areas in the country, but that the haze was also happening in other ASEAN countries. The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution has been criticised for lacking enforcement mechanisms for dispute-resolution, and many have called for stronger national and regional legal instruments to protect the rights of Malaysians affected by the haze, but there seems to be little to no updates on this. We catch up with Heng Kiah Chun, a Regional Campaign Strategist with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, to discuss the fundamental root causes of the transboundary haze crisis which must be addressed, and for an update on the pioneering complaint filed at the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) in 2021 - the first to combine environmental issues with human rights - by a broad alliance of civil-society organisations, as a proactive countermeasure to address the chronic and persistent haze pollution.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The recent unwelcome visit by the haze in the region was another unpleasant reminder that the issue of transboundary haze is far from resolved. Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad reportedly said that the haze was caused by peat fires and open burning in several areas in the country, but that the haze was also happening in other ASEAN countries. The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution has been criticised for lacking enforcement mechanisms for dispute-resolution, and many have called for stronger national and regional legal instruments to protect the rights of Malaysians affected by the haze, but there seems to be little to no updates on this. We catch up with Heng Kiah Chun, a Regional Campaign Strategist with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, to discuss the fundamental root causes of the transboundary haze crisis which must be addressed, and for an update on the pioneering complaint filed at the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) in 2021 - the first to combine environmental issues with human rights - by a broad alliance of civil-society organisations, as a proactive countermeasure to address the chronic and persistent haze pollution.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Back in late January of this year, Malaysia witnessed a major win for environmental law in Malaysia, when the Federal Court - in a landmark decision - quashed a hillside development that was issued by the local authority in Penang. Many have noted that this ruling might have impacts on other public interest litigation cases in the country. On a two-part special, we discuss this apex judgement, and what significance it holds in Malaysia with Peter Leong, a researcher and environmental activist, and former secretary of Friends of Bukit Kiara, and also Datuk P. Gunasilan, a veteran town planner and a Fellow with the Malaysian Institute of Planners.

Listen to Part 1 here.

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