This summer, Australian broadcaster SBS aired an investigative story on its Dateline television program called “The Last Frontier” focusing on 12 controversial dams being built in Sarawak, Malaysia. It was one of the first times that a major international news network raised attention to continuing human rights violations in Sarawak that have gone largely unnoticed outside...
The High Court recently ruled against a joint petition by Penan and Kelabit people in Limbang to save their forest lands from the greed of Chief Minister Taib’s timber and plantation allies, Samling Global and the Hii family. The judge based his ruling on the failure of the natives of...
According to a study published last year in the journal Global Change Biology, Indonesia and Malaysia lost more than 11 million hectares (42,470 square miles) of forest between 2000 and 2010. Borneo was on the top of list, losing 12 percent of its 2000 cover. Lowland forests historically have been...
Organized by the Save Sarawak’s Rivers Network (SAVE Rivers) and the Baram Protection Action Committee (BPAC), representatives of villages in the Baram District of Borneo, strongly opposed the plans of the Sarawak State Government and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) to build the Baram Dam. Read the letter detailing their requests...
This coming Saturday, a 24-hour environmental protest is planned on the outskirts of the coastal Malaysian town of Kuantan to protest the rare earth refinery being built by the Australian mining company Lynas. Momentum for the environmental movement in Malaysia is building as thousands of local residents, environmental groups, and...
The statement that tropical dams provide clean energy is a myth. A recently published report in Nature Climate Change warns that dams in the tropics emit a much great amount of greenhouse gas emissions than their temperate counterparts. The main sources of emissions come from the release of carbon from...
The Director of the Borneo Project, Jettie Word, speaks to the importance of protecting Borneo’s rivers and the communities that live on their banks from twelve massive and destructive proposed dam projects. Read more about how the Borneo Project is supporting indigenous communities who are directly impacted by environmental destruction....
The people of Baram gathered together to protest the proposed Baram Dam during a ceremony called the ‘Manyau Dalleh’ organised last Saturday by the state government and Sarawak Energy Berhad to kick start the second phase of soil studies of the dam project. Read more about the protest against the...
The five-year campaign to find someway to use the 2,400 megawatts of power generated by the Bakun Dam in Sarawak came to an end when Rio Tinto Alcan recently pulled out of a RM6 billion aluminum smelt project. The mega-dam is a cherished project of former prime minister Dr Mahathir...
Chief Minister Taib recently rewarded his son, Abu Bekir, a contract worth millions of dollars for the construction of the Murum dam. Read more about how the Taibs have developed powerful positions in lucrative infrastructure projects associated with their hydro-electric plans and with SCORE. For more information on mega-dams in Borneo,...
