November 2012: Faced with declining wild ape populations and dwindling forests, the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) set law enforcement, habitat protection and political advocacy among its top priorities and emerged with renewed energy and urgency following the 2nd GRASP Council that was held 6-8 November at UNESCO headquarters in Paris....
Clean, renewable energy is an important component to the fight against global climate change. Read below on how Brunei aims to add more solar energy to its portfolio. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: In the forefront of the country’s renewable energy drive, the Energy Department at the Prime Minister’s Office (EDPMO) is looking...
Already wracked by extensive deforestation and forest degradation, the future looks grim for Borneo’s tropical rainforests, reports a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. Combining historical records with field observations and global climate models Tomo’omi Kumagai and Amilcare Porporato of Duke University find that an sharp increase in drought...
Eyes on the Forest (EoF) — an alliance that includes Friends of the Earth (Walhi) Riau, Jikalahari, and WWF-Indonesia — published SMG/APP deforestation and deadly human-tiger conflict as part of its ongoing campaign to highlight conversion of natural forests in Riau province for industrial timber plantations. The report looks specifically at five...
MARUDI: Polls in Malaysia are due to be held before April 2013 when the current government’s five-year term will end. The Malaysian opposition leader and potential future Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has recently made a public statement very significant to Sarawak’s indigenous peoples. During a gathering at Marudi, a town on...
Research published in 2012 provided a better understanding of tropical deforestation’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Two studies — one published in Science and the other published in Nature Climate Change, concluded that while deforestation now accounts for a lower share of global emissions relative to the late 1990s, it still represents roughly 10...
The Eyes on the Forest report [PDF] finds that APRIL and its suppliers cleared at least 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) of natural forest between 2008 and 2011 in Riau, accounting for 27 percent of all forest loss in the province during the period. Some of the area cleared by APRIL and its...
Penan leaders issue stern warning to loggers. “We will do everything necessary to protect our forests”: Penan leaders from Sarawak’s Middle Baram region (Photo : www.bmf.ch) It could well have been a plot from Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. Except that, instead of the African Congo, the clashes between...
Practical information is often necessary for communities resorting to the court process (Civil Litigation) to reclaim Native Customary Rights (NCR) Lands. The below guidebook is SACCESS’s first attempt to better inform and prepare Native Customary Rights (NCR) landowners in Sarawak who want to use the Malaysian civil courts to seek declaration...
With great joy, we can announce to you that the 12-day Australia tour by an indigenous delegation from Sarawak’s SAVE Rivers network will be coming to a victorious end. Roy Adair, the CEO of Hydro Tasmania, a state-owned Australian hydropower operator and consultant, said in a meeting with the Sarawak...
