By Jettie Word, Borneo Project Director I am so lucky. I am lucky that my anthropologist mother brought me to Indonesian Borneo when I was nine years old. I am lucky that I got to live there while much of the forest was still intact and the rivers ran clean....
Illegal open burning is being blamed for the choking smog characteristic of Indonesia’s dry season but environmentalists allege that this illegal activity persists because officials are being bribed to ignore illegal forest fires. Read more below about these investigations and the warnings of the fires to come in 2014. ...
On his 50th anniversary of uninterrupted public office, Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, commented on the ‘lack of progress’ achieved by Dayaks during his tenure and suggested that he would be the one to provide a solution. Read more below about this proposition and why many point to Taib...
Over the last few weeks and months, I have followed the spread of the haze from the fires in Sumatra, which have inundated Singapore and peninsular Malaysia, with a mixture of both sadness and deja vu. I lived in Indonesian Borneo during the infamous fires of the late 1990s, when...
The Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) announced that the last of keruing paya (Dipterocarpus coriaceus) in Peninsular Malaysia were wiped out when more than 450 hectares Bikam Forest Reserve in Perak were cleared for oil palm plantations. Read more below about this endemic tree and the impacts of palm oil...
Effective legislation governing the use of natural resources should address biodiversity as well as the needs of indigenous communities. Read more below about a study by Biodiversity Conservation examining the weaknesses in natural resource laws in Malaysia and learn why this legislation is of high concern for conservationists. Read more on...
Using satellite data, a team of scientists has concluded a comprehensive study determining that 80% of the rainforests in Malaysian Borneo have been heavily impacted by logging or clearing. Read more below about the details of this study and the recommendations of these researchers. Read more on Mongabay Read more...
The Malaysian Government seems to think it can steal the land of indigenous people, deprive them of their livelihoods, and then claim that they are helping them to thrive. The government may think they can lie to people in the villages about the “better life” they will have after resettlement,...
By Jettie Word, Borneo Project Director The Government of Sarawak is currently conducting social and environmental impact assessments, or SEIA, in the area that will be affected by the Baram dam — the next dam planned as part of the Sarawak government’s plan to build 12 massive dams...
Sarawak’s state government policy of freezing the supply of oil palm seedlings to rural Dayaks is facing criticism as the state sells land cheaply to crony companies. Read more below about the preferential treatment given to these companies over rural Dayaks and the flaws in the government’s claim. Read more...
