Earth Matters

It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, and for this Nature Reads special we thought we'd do something a little different. Instead of having one of the Sunda Shelves team as our usual guest co-host, we have all three on the show - co-founders/ sh(elves) Surin Suksuwan, Jennifer Neoh Tan, and Dylan Jefri Ong. Together they will be sharing their own top picks of books on nature and conservation that are must-haves, and that shaped their own love of nature and reading. They'll also share recommendations for thoughtful nature-inspired Christmas book gifts, and give us an inside look at what's new at the store.

Nature Reads on Earth Matters is the show where we explore the stories behind books that bring us closer to nature and the world around us. Every month, we team up with the good folks at Sunda Shelves, an independent bookstore and café with a passion for wild places and thoughtful reads.

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As Malaysia races against the alarming projection that our landfills may reach capacity by 2041, Zero Waste Malaysia is doubling down on efforts to build a culture of sustainability where it matters most: in our schools. Through the Green Wira Programme, now in its second cohort, over 300 educators have been equipped to lead meaningful, lasting zero-waste initiatives, impacting an estimated 150,000 students nationwide. With the upcoming week-long Green Wira Exhibition and Showcase, and fresh insights from their new stakeholder survey, the organisation hopes to spark even stronger community involvement in the zero-waste movement. Joining us to share more are Khor Sue Yee, Co-founder and Director, and Tasha Sabapathy, Senior Programme and Communications Officer, from Zero Waste Malaysia.

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Shorebirds are easy to miss but impossible to forget once you start paying attention, which is something the team behind the Shorebirds Peninsular Malaysia Project has been proving for nearly a decade. Through surveys, talks, community outreach and partnerships at home and abroad, they’re helping Malaysians see and value the species that depend on our wetlands. To walk us through this work and why it matters, we’re joined by ornithologistDr Nur Munira Azman, the coordinator of the Shorebirds Peninsular Malaysia Project, and a lecturer at the Biology Department of the Science and Mathematics Faculty at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, and Dr Aini Hasanah Abd Mutalib, co-researcher with the Shorebirds Peninsular Malaysia Project, and a research officer at the Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Malaysia is home to some of the world’s most extraordinary biodiversity, from towering dipterocarp forests to coral reefs teeming with life. But decades of deforestation, urbanisation, and industrial growth have taken their toll on our natural heritage. The Malaysian Nature Society, or MNS, is now taking a closer look at where things stand through their upcoming State of Nature Conservation in Malaysia Symposium - 34 years since the maiden release of this report in 1991. Joining us to talk about what’s at stake, what’s changed, and what needs to happen next for our natural heritage in Malaysia are Donovan Louis, MNS’s Head of Conservation, and Ng Sean Fong, MNS's Data and Policy Officer.

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This week, the world is gathering in Belém, Brazil, for COP30, the global climate summit. But here in Malaysia, a parallel movement is unfolding - AlterCOP 30 Malaysia, a grassroots version that mirrors the urgency of COP while grounding it in local realities. It’s independent, youth-driven, and collaborative, and a place for Malaysians to connect global ambition with local action. We speak to the core team organising this summit - Benoit Rabaud, Wan Hidayat, and Gabriel Hii - about what this grassroots “alternative COP” hopes to achieve, and how it might help Malaysians see their own role in the global climate story.

Image Credit: AlterCOP 30

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Every year, the world generates tens of millions of tonnes of electronic waste, from old phones and laptops to discarded TVs. Much of this ends up not in the countries that produced it, but in developing nations ill-equipped to deal with its toxic legacy. A new report by the Basel Action Network, “Brokers of Shame,” exposes how American companies continue to ship e-waste to Asia, and how Malaysia has become one of its biggest recipients. Joining us to unpack these findings is Wong Pui Yi, a Malaysian researcher with the Basel Action Network (BAN).

Image Credit: Michael Neilson, Klang e-waste dumpsite, Selangor

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Across Southeast Asia, we’re all grappling with plastic waste, from rivers choked with bottles and packaging to new proposals for “waste-to-energy” plants that promise to turn rubbish into electricity. But are these really solutions, or just shifting the problem elsewhere? The Philippines, like Malaysia, faces this tension between convenience, consumption, and sustainability too. In this episode, we're joined by two experts from the Philippines who’ve spent years studying and tackling these issues: Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, an environmental scientist and former UN Chief Technical Advisor on the Environment, who’s worked with the WHO and UNDP on safe and sustainable waste management, who's currently an Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Silliman University Philippines, and also Merci Ferrer, the Co-Convenor for War on Waste Negros Oriental, and the President of the Philippines Office for the Global Alliance of Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). Together, we’ll explore what it really takes to move toward cleaner, more sustainable ways of living. 

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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All five of Malaysia’s gibbon species are endangered, facing threats from deforestation, hunting, and the illegal pet trade. But in the forests of Pahang and Sabah, a group of women are fighting to turn things around. They are Malaysia’s first all-female, all-Indigenous wildlife ranger team, working with the Gibbon Conservation Society to rescue, rehabilitate and return gibbons to the wild. Joining us to share more about this are the Gibbon Conservation Society's Founder, Mariani Ramli, and three of the Indigenous rangers: Melda Yapi, Sunnyda A/P Yok Nun, and Lily A/P Din. The rangers discuss their journey into wildlife conservation, their challenges as Indigenous women working in the field, and their hopes for Malaysia’s gibbons.

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For this month's Nature Reads, together with co-host Surin Suksuwan (co-founder, Sunda Shelves), we speak to author and anthropologist Dr. Christine Padoch, whose new bilingual book Pemulai ke Nanga Jela / Return to Nanga Jela takes us back to an Iban longhouse community in Sarawak that once stood above the Engkari River, a landscape that was later submerged by the Batang Ai Dam. Through her time living among the Iban community in the 1970s, Christine documented their extraordinary relationship with the land, from cultivating dozens of rice varieties to maintaining traditions deeply rooted in place. She joins us to talk about the book, her fieldwork, and what this story of Nanga Jela can still teach us about culture, memory, and our connection with nature. 

Nature Reads on Earth Matters is the show where we explore the stories behind books that bring us closer to nature and the world around us. Every month, we team up with the good folks at Sunda Shelves, an independent bookstore and café with a passion for wild places and thoughtful reads.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Losing a pet can feel like losing a member of the family. Yet many people find their grief dismissed or misunderstood, making the healing process even more difficult. In this conversation, we speak with Shuang Ao, a licensed and registered counsellor about how to navigate the emotions of losing a pet, and how to honour that bond in healthy, meaningful ways.

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