On today’s show, we discussed how everyday landscapes have the potential to serve environmental, social and cultural functions. We are joined by LAr. Norliza Mohd Yusof, Member of the Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia (ILAM) to find out more about the organisation’s passion for organising and developing green spaces.

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Dr. Adam Algar is an ecologist, macro-ecologist, biogeographer, herpetologist, and evolutionary biologist whose research focuses on how climate affects the evolution and ecology of organisms, especially lizards in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. He joins us to discuss his work and the research he's conducting in Malaysia and the serious repercussions of a world without lizards.

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A recent study titled “Fruit Gardens Enhance Mammal Diversity and Biomass in a Southeast Asian Rainforest” has found that the traditional practices of local indigenous people can have some benefits for animal conservation. We spoke to two of the researchers from the study, Jonathan Moore and Dr. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, who investigated the role of the Chewong community's fruit gardens in benefiting forest wildlife.

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Professor David Macdonald is the founder and director of the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Unit or WildCRU as it's better known, one of the most high-profile science-based conservation groups in the world. We caught up with the multiple award-winning professor, to discuss his work as an academic, author, film-maker, and policy adviser, and his efforts to popularise biology with the general public. 

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It's estimated that at least 100 million sharks are killed every year for their fins. Malaysia has been identified as among the world's largest shark's fin consumers and this demand has led to an alarming decline of shark numbers, which in turn affects the wider ecosystem, including all of us. We speak to Wong Siew Lyn and Wong Wee Liem, from the MNS Marine Group and Wong Si Peng, a scuba instructor, who are all part of a Shark Awareness Program happening in June, about the critical need to keep sharks in our waters.

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Malaysians are turning Facebook into a wildlife marketplace, driving a roaring and often illegal trade in iconic and threatened animals, according to a new report from TRAFFIC. The “Trading Faces: A Rapid Assessment on the use of Facebook to Trade Wildlife in Peninsular Malaysia” report has revealed that the rise of social media has enabled the creation of a thriving marketplace for wild animals as pets where one previously didn’t exist, in Malaysia. We find out more from Kanitha Krishnasamy, Programme Manager for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia and a co-author of the new report.

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Last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched the revised National Policy on Biological Diversity, which has outlined five key principles in biodiversity management. Chee Yoke Ling, the Director of Programmes at the Third World Network, joins us to analyse the revised policies and to discuss whether these revisions will suffice, to help fulfil Malaysia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

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Dr. Louisa Ponnampalam and Fairul Izmal Jamal Hisne, the co-founders of The MareCet Research Organization, joined us to give some factual afterthoughts about the whale that was stranded and died in Batu Pahat, Johor last week. They cleared up some misleading facts that were put out in the news about the incident, which include the wrong species of whale being cited, among many other factual errors .

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It’s no revelation that most travellers don't worry about the problems of the world and take into account environmental and social sustainability when making travel plans. Andrew Sebastian, the Co-Founder and CEO of the Ecotourism & Conservation Society of Malaysia (ECOMY) joins us to make the case for why we should all opt for sustainable tourism choices, and to help sift through 'greenwashing' practices by eco-tourism companies, who market sustainability more than they practice it.

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Citizen science involves everyday people who volunteer to help scientists with their research, and it is widely regarded as a tool for creating public awareness on many environmental issues. We chat with John-James Wilson, Jisming See and Gary Sing, co-authors of the citizen science project “The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count”, to find out more about the benefits of such studies, and why butterflies are often the focus of such projects.

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