The Bruno Manser Fund released a series of photographs today documenting the social and environmental damages caused by the sealed-off Bakun dam zone. The images show disturbing poverty and environmental destruction in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. Meant to bring development and progress to the people of Sarawak, the world’s second-tallest concrete-faced rockfill…
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Traditional livelihoods are declining in Borneo forests
As tracts of the Borneo rain forest are increasingly lost to logging and mining operations, forest communities in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province are turning to jobs in mining, agriculture, construction and other sectors. Such job growth comes at the expense of sustainable forest management and results in a considerable decline in the role of forests…
Bruno Manser Fund releases secret Sarawak dam map
The Malaysian government plans to construct the 1000 MW Baram Dam which will displace at least 26 indigenous villages with a population of 20,000 Borneo natives and flood up to 412 square kilometers of rainforest. The Bruno Manser Fund has disclosed a map showing the extent of the project that will cause social and environmental…
BBC issued a global apology for several documentaries that broke rules
The BBC apologized today about broadcasting documentaries produced by a London TV company, FBC, that was earning millions of pounds from PR clients who were featured in the films. At least four of the documentaries included positive coverage of the controversial palm-oil industry in Malaysia. The FBC received payments from the government of Malaysia for…
A Video from Borneo to Kosovo with love. No Coal!
Watch this moving clip on what it means to be internationally united over fighting for a common environmental goal. People from Borneo share their support for Kosovo in fighting a coal plant. Watch below! ******* http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/borneo-kosovo-love-no-coal From Borneo to Kosovo with love. No Coal! Share This: Posted by Will Bates – 02/13/12, 1:24am …
NGO coalition condemns Malaysian dam plans
An international NGO coalition stands in solidarity with Sawarak natives who are gathering in Miri to protest the construction of 12 hyrdo-electric dams in Malaysian Borneo. The NGO coalition, made up of The Bruno Manser Fund, International Rivers (US), Borneo Project (US), Rainforest Action Network (US) and the Rainforest Foundation Norway, supports the demand for…
Borneo rainbow toad rediscovered after 87 years
After 87 years of evasion, herpetologists have finally re-discovered the lost Borneo rainbow toad. The toad was last seen in Borneo in 1924 and European explorers recorded only monochrome illustrations of the vibrantly colored amphibian. The mysterious species was added a decade or so later to the World’s Top 10 Most Wanted Lost Frogs Campaign.…
Two Girl Scouts continue to fight for the removal of palm oil from their cookies
Madison Vorva and her friend Rhiannon Tomtishen, two high school juniors in Michigan, won the United Nations Forest Award for their efforts in leading a campaign to remove palm oil from Girl Scout cookies. After learning that the endangered orangutan was losing its habitat due to the global demand for palm oil, they began to…
Check out this tiny ultrasonic Philippine Tarsier on video!
The Tarsier, one of the smallest primates on the planet, uses ultrasonic signals to communicate. Some species of Tarsiers from Borneo and the Philippines are thought to be silent, though other species have calls that are audible to humans. Read more about the sensitivity of the Tarsier’s hearing. ******* http://www.care2.com/causes/the-tiny-ultrasonic-philippine-tarsier-video.html The Tiny, Ultrasonic Philippine Tarsier…
Orangutan ‘exterminators’ on trial in Indonesia
Three Indonesians and one Malaysian went on trial yesterday for killing orangutan’s and other protected primates and all face up to 5 years in jail. Experts say that only 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans are left in the wild, and 80 percent of them are in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia. They are in threat…