Over 45,000 formal objections, over 130,000 online signatures in protest, a huge turnout at the public hearing against the move, clear and unmistakable dissent from the communities of the Kuala Langat North forest reserve including the Orang Asli, huge public outcry from civil societies and the public in general, 56 representatives in the Selangor State Assembly voting unanimously to support a motion to protect all forest reserves in Selangor. Despite all this, the Selangor State Executive Council has unanimously decided to degazette part of the Kuala Langat North forest reserve - an 8,000-year-old peat swamp forest and one of the last in southern Selangor - for a mixed development project. We catch up with members of the Pertahankan Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara (PHSKLU) coalition, Shaq Koyok, a contemporary orang asli artist, and Nicole Fong, a researcher and activist from Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY), to discuss this latest development, and also what might come next in the fight to protect this important forest from any form of development.

Image credit: Global Environment Centre

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