Earth Matters

It's been said that one of Yeb Sano’s defining moments came during the 2013 UN Climate Summit in Warsaw, where, as the Philippines Chief Negotiator, he delivered an emotional appeal and underwent 14 days of fasting in solidarity with Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) victims, and all those already faced with the impacts of the climate crisis. With nearly two decades of experience working to combat climate change, Yeb is the Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, and has been tirelessly working towards achieving social and environmental justice, especially for developing nations. Ahead of World Environment Day, we speak to Yeb about issues related to the climate crisis, and how he is campaigning for the defense of ancient forests, and against carbon polluters.

Image credit: Nitin Bhardwaj/flickr

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Another month gone by, another round-up with our two favourite environmental journalists, Law Yao Hua and Wong Siew Lyn, the co-founders of Macaranga. This May, we look back at KL's floods and why it's supposedly happening so often, before turning our attention to the skies, and how Migratory Bird Day this year calls attention to light pollution and its impact on birds, even here in Malaysia. We also discuss the Lanthanide rare earth mining project that has been approved in Perak, which will further reduce the size of our Central Forest Spine. Looking forward to June, we discuss World Oceans Day, and the effects a warming ocean has on corals. 

Image credit: Shutterstock, RustyR/Shutterstock, Saarani Mohamad/Facebook

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Serene Chng is a wildlife trade researcher and a program officer with TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia. Her work involves recording wildlife traded in many of the region’s most notorious markets, and she has brought many emerging wildlife trafficking issues to light through her research and collaborations with others. A bird lover herself, Serene is a co-coordinator with the IUCN Species Survival Commission Asian Songbird Specialist Trade Group, which was instrumental in highlighting the fact that the world is facing an Asian songbird crisis - a result of a frenzy of illegal trapping and unsustainable trade to supply demand for them as caged birds. Serene joins us to talk about her work, including what she did as a "National Geographic Explorer" from 2019 - 2021, which, among other stories, is now immortalised in a podcast series, Expedition: Earth.

Image credit: A stall in a bird market, Bali. ©Serene Chng/TRAFFIC

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Juara Turtle Project is a conservation and research centre on Tioman Island, and the group call themselves a "peoples project", because they believe change begins with people. The group runs a number of volunteer-based conservation projects to try and progress the situation for the sea turtles and natural habitats on Tioman island, which also has some of the world’s most pristine coral reefs that facilitate a flourishing ecosystem. However, that system is constantly under threat due to unsustainable practices on a local and global scale. We find out more about the group and their work from John Richard Amos and Siti Hawa binti, who are both with the Juara Turtle Project.

Image credit: Juara Turtle Project/Facebook

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On this month's episode of The ABC's of Biodiversity, we "shellebrate" World Turtle Day! Observed annually on the 23rd of May, the celebration aims to promote the protection of turtles and tortoises around the world, and also their disappearing habitats. Joining us is Dr. Chen Pelf Nyok, the President of the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia (TCS), to give us a 101 on Malaysia's freshwater turtles, and to share more about the community-based river terrapin conservation projects that TCS are spearheading, and how it’s helping to restore depleted wild turtle populations of freshwater turtles in the country.

Image credit: @turtletweets/Twitter

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No monkeying around - a new study has revealed that a new, never-before-identified monkey has been spotted near the Kinabatangan River, in Sabah. The monkey is believed to be a rare hybrid between two different species, likely the offspring of a proboscis monkey and a silvery langur, which are two distantly related species that share the same habitat. As amazing as this discovery is, the researchers note that this hybrid is possibly a result of both species being so cramped together in the remaining narrow riparian forest patches surrounded by oil palm plantations, where they compete for food and mating opportunities. We discuss the implications of this new study with two of the study's co-authors, Dr. Nadine Ruppert, a Primatologist at Universiti Sains Malaysia and the Vice-President of the Malaysian Primatological Society, and Nicole Lee, from Marvelous Vacation, Sabah.

Image credit: Nicole Lee/International Journal of Primatology

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Late last month, the Rimba Disclosure Project (RDP), released its findings for 2021, and found that Peninsular Malaysia will see deforestation amounting to a minimum of 72,584.73ha in the near future, which is nearly equal to the size of Singapore. They based their findings off a total of 86 environmental impact assessments (EIAs) involving forested land had been approved, 28 listings of forests for sale identified, and one project involving deforestation that was ongoing. The group points out that deforestation would not be possible without the support of the financial industry, and have called on all financial players to step up and recognise the connections between the biodiversity and climate crisis and urgently end all financial flows towards deforestation. They join us to discuss their findings and calls to action.

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The International Day for Biological Diversity is taking place later this month, and the theme for this year is “Building a shared future for all life.” Much like our ongoing series, Biodiversity For Malaysia, the theme was chosen to continue building momentum and support for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference #COP15. So in this month's episode, we want to tackle the real impacts of biodiversity loss on communities, and discuss how changes in ecosystem services affect livelihoods, income, migration and more. Joining us for this discussion are Julian Hyde (General Manager, Reef Check Malaysia), Dr Jillian Ooi (Marine Ecologist & Senior Lecturer, Universiti Malaya), and Affendi Yang Amri (Coral Reef Ecologist, Universiti Malaya & President of the Malaysian Society of Marine Sciences).

You can listen to previous episodes in this series here and here.

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Plastic Soup on Earth Matters is an ongoing series where we ask whether we are indeed living in a giant bowl of plastic soup, and explore ways we can get out of this goop. It's the tail end of Ramadan, and Hari Raya Aidilfitri is just around the corner. But like any festival or celebration, we tend to consume more, and likewise generate more waste too. On today's show, we want to explore how to be more mindful about our consumption and how we dispose of our food waste ahead of the upcoming festivities with Mareena Yahya, the co-Founder of both Tak Nak Straw and Sampah-Menyampah, and Khor Sue Yee, the Co-founder and Director of Zero Waste Malaysia.

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Wong Siew Lyn and Law Yao Hua, the Co-Founders of environmental journalism portal Macaranga, return for their monthly round-up of top environmental news from the month past. This month, we discuss how residents of Klang are exploring the possibility of taking action against the government for their failure to respond adequately to the floods that hit them in December last year, before turning our attention to how the feasibility of forest plantations were questioned in Pahang's recent state legislative assembly, where the state government says 63% of cleared sites has been replanted, but Macaranga's reporting suggests otherwise. Finally we look forward to International Day of Biodiversity which falls on May 22nd, and discuss things we can do in conjunction with this celebration. 

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