August 2017 Updates

Learning how to manage forests in Bario: On our recent trip to Sarawak we visited Bario, a community in the Kelabit Highlands. We wanted to learn about the consultation and management process for the Pulong Tau National Park, a large protected area nearby. We planted trees and chatted with Lian, one of only three rangers...

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New research: building planned dams will significantly and irreversibly damage the environment

New paper in Nature analyses the wide-scale negative impacts of damming rivers in the Amazon basin. The Amazon basin will suffer significant and irreversible environmental damage if hundreds of planned dams are constructed. The hydrophysical and ecological disturbances will impact the Amazon basin’s floodplains, estuary, and sediment plume. The benefits will not...

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NO KAIDUAN DAM!

Photo courtesy Save Ulu Papar’s Facebook page The government has approved a new, controversial dam to be built in Sabah, Malaysia – and it will be built if nothing is done to stop it. The foreseeable Kaiduan dam will obstruct the Papar River in the Ulu Papar valley, flooding some 3,000 acres...

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State Bracing for El Niño

It is generally predicted that El Niño will hit the whole region of South East Asia sometime soon, with some countries hit harder than the rest. Read more below to find out how this weather pattern will affect Borneo and how Malaysia is preparing for any potential disaster that may...

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Alien Trees Use Logging Roads to Invade Borneo Forests

One tropical tree from Central and South America has made itself at home in Borneo where it is crowding  out local vegetation and interfering with forest recovery. Although this tree has been slow to spread through Borneo since its introduction in 1952, new logging roads appear to be driving the species...

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Malaysia Rejects Indigenous Rights at the UN

The recent suggestion by the United Nations that the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights should be allowed to visit the county in order to evaluate the treatment of the indigenous Orang Ulu has been rejected by the Malaysian government. Read more below to find out what other recommendations Malaysia...

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Malaysia’s Sarawak: Last of the Rajahs

A powerful chief minister bows out—or does he? Abdul Taib Mahmud, who has lorded over the Malaysian state on Borneo for over 30 years, recently announced his retirement at the end of this month. Read more below to find out just how much Taib has influenced the development of Sarawak...

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