Parti Hijau Malaysia or the Green Party of Malaysia is the new kid on the block, focussed on highlighting environmental issues in Malaysia, and protecting forest reserves. Highly vocal on issues surrounding the degazettement of forest reserves in Selangor, the party is hoping that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) will approve their application before the next Selangor state election is called, so they can contest in the upcoming polls. We speak to Abdul Razak Ismail, the pro-tem secretary-genera...
Feb 22, 2023•43 min
We kick off a new ecotourism-centred series on Earth Matters - Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta - which aims to highlight lesser-known ecotourism spots right here in Malaysia. Done in collaboration with the Ecotourism & Conservation Society of Malaysia (ECOMY) the series aims to shine a spotlight on lesser-known ecotourism spots right here in Malaysia, that will take you on off-the-beaten-track nature adventures. In our first episode, we explore the hidden delights that the areas surrounding Kuala T...
Feb 20, 2023•38 min
Back in 2015, wildlife researcher Dr Ravinder Kaur and wildlife photographer Sanjitpaal Singh set up the social enterprise Explore GAIA , to conserve the hornbills of Malaysia. Explore GAIA, together with the NGO Hutan, are currently the only groups providing nesting opportunities for endangered hornbills in Malaysia, and they have been searching for natural nesting sites of endangered hornbills, monitoring and protecting active nests and innovating artificial nest boxes. In a love-themed Earth ...
Feb 15, 2023•45 min
Late last month, the Federal Court in a landmark decision, quashed a hillside development that was issued by the local authority in Penang. Federal Court judge Nallini Pathmanathan who wrote the unanimous decision, ruled that Section 22(2A) says that the development affecting hill tops or hill slopes is no longer merely an issue of local state governance, but is also a federal and national issue. What does this all mean, and how will this ruling impact other hillslope development plans around th...
Feb 13, 2023•28 min
It was World Wetlands Day on the 2nd of February, and we wanted to give props to the many underrated habitats that fall under the category of wetlands, which are described as the most productive ecosystems in the world. Previously, we spoke about what wetlands are, but in this second episode of our two-part special, we discuss threats that continuously degrade these habitats, but also solutions on how to conserve and protect remaining wetlands. Joining us to do this is Dr. Ahmad Aldrie Amir, a S...
Feb 08, 2023•42 min
We catch up on some of the top environmental news of January 2023, with the co-founders of environmental journalism portal, Macaranga . This month, we first discuss the implications of a Federal Court ruling which ruled in favour of Sungai Ara residents, who challenged the Penang island city council’s (MBPP) decision to grant planning permission to a developer to build a housing scheme on a hillslope. Next, we turn our attention to The Guardian's investigation of Verra Carbon offsets, which clai...
Jan 30, 2023•19 min
February 2nd marks World Wetlands Day, and 2023's theme is “It’s Time for Wetlands Restoration,” highlighting the urgent need to prioritise wetland restoration. Though they are called bogs, swamps, marshes, and a host of other unappealing names, wetlands are the most productive ecosystems in the world, and exist in every country and in every climatic zone. In a two-part special, we take a deep dive and discuss all things wetlands with Dr. Ahmad Aldrie Amir, a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow,...
Jan 30, 2023•33 min
Standing at 291m, Bukit Dinding is described as one of the last green fortresses in Kuala Lumpur, and is a popular recreational spot for many. Back in late 2022 though, news broke that two blocks of 26-storey condominiums will be built there, even though the area has been known to be landslide-prone, and has an underground water source at the hill. Residents around the area and others opposing the development filed for a Judicial Review on the project last December, and are keeping up the fight ...
Jan 25, 2023•30 min
Hazen Audel is a biologist, TV presenter, and natural history guide, who is Kootenai and Salish Native American and Greek by descent. He founded The Wild Classroom, a non-profit online web-series offering teachers and students quality, natural history educational videos for use in the classroom and home. As the host of National Geographic's Primal Survivor series, he has documented many adventures and tales of survivalism, and his experiences living with and working alongside indigenous people i...
Jan 18, 2023•37 min
The Swap Project (TSP) was launched in late 2018 by Jayda Chong and Jamie Choy, two young women who "are passionate about sustainability in a fashionable way". Fashion of course has a huge environmental cost, and it's estimated that the fashion industry is currently responsible for more annual carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping, combined. How can pre-loved clothing swap-meets like The Swap Project make a change in the way we think about fashion and our personal...
Jan 16, 2023•27 min
Back in November 2022, the 19th Conference of the Parties (CoP19) to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) took place in Panama, to discuss the future of the international trade in endangered species. At the meeting, Malaysia lobbied for two proposals to respectively upgrade and add protection for two songbird species - the straw-headed bulbul and the white-rumped shama - in the wild. In a huge win for Malaysia, both were accepted unanimously, and will help against ...
Jan 11, 2023•36 min
One million species are currently at risk of extinction. Back in 2011, almost 200 countries agreed to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, a set of 20 targets intended to protect nature, save biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people. All 20 targets were missed. In late December 2022, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was finally signed, a landmark agreement which consists of four key goals and a set of 23 targets, intended to address biodiversity loss, restore ecosystem...
Jan 09, 2023•33 min
A landmark deal was reached after two weeks of talks in Montreal at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit, where nations from across the world agreed to a new set of goals and targets to “halt and reverse” biodiversity loss by 2030. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework includes something we've been discussing often - the “30×30” target, to conserve 30% of the world’s land and 30% of the ocean by 2030. What does this all mean? We dissect what went down at the talks with Julian Hyde (Gene...
Jan 04, 2023•34 min
In our last Earth Matters show for 2022, we catch up with Wong Siew Lyn and Law Yao Hua, the co-founders of environmental journalism portal Macaranga, who share some of the big stories that they covered throughout the year, on macaranga.org . We cover five main topics including food security and climate change, the impacts of African swine fever in Malaysia, calls to modernise Penang’s pig farming business, the need for coral restoration (and coral awareness in general), and also the strange bea...
Dec 28, 2022•41 min
Indah Water Konsortium, Malaysia's national sewerage company has been entrusted with the tasks of developing and maintaining a modern and efficient sewerage system for all Malaysians. Providing crucial services to millions of households in the country, Indah Water is determined to keep building a sustainable business that contributes towards a cleaner, greener and healthier environment. How are they doing that? We speak to Narendran Maniam, the CEO of Indah Water Konsortium, to discuss the compa...
Dec 21, 2022•16 min
We have a new rebranded Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change, led by YB Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad. What are among the issues that he should prioritise? We speak to two Earth Matters regulars, about what they hope the ministry will focus on, as we collectively tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. First we hear from Andrew Sebastian, the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of the Ecotourism & Conservation Society Malaysia (...
Dec 14, 2022•27 min
The rebranded Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change will be at the forefront to address Malaysia's environmental issues, and the ministry combines natural resources, pollution control, climate change, and the water sector all under one roof. Described as a move towards more holistic environmental governance, the ministry will be led by Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad. On the show, we speak to Celine Lim from Sarawak's Save Rivers , about what she feels the new ministry must focus on,...
Dec 12, 2022•33 min
Describing the work he does as “literally anything under the sun for sustainability," Abdul Razak Abdul Aziz, the founder of Social Eco Enterprise Development for Sustainability or SEEDS Malaysia , likes to get involved any way he can, working towards promoting a more ecologically-friendly lifestyle for us all. Together with his wife Intan and their family, they have been running a natural farming and sustainable living centre in Klang since 2017, and Razak believes that when it comes to farming...
Dec 07, 2022•35 min
In our penultimate roundup for 2022, we catch-up with the co-founders of environmental journalism portal Macaranga , Wong Siew Lyn and Law Yao Hua, to discuss top environmental news from November 2022. Most Malaysians were focussed on GE15 this month, and the intense campaigning around it. But were conversations on prioritising the environment and the climate crisis also part of those discussions, from both the competing candidates, and civil society? November also brings monsoon rains to the co...
Nov 30, 2022•14 min
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – was meant to build on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver action on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency. Were these critical issues - urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience, adapting to the impacts of climate change, delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries - met? We catch up with Meenakshi Raman, the Pres...
Nov 30, 2022•49 min
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP27 - has concluded. Were there wins from this set of climate negotiations, or were they just another set of never-ending theoretical discussions? We speak to Malaysian activist Ili Nadiah Dzulfakar, the chairperson of Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY), who was in Sharm el-Sheikh for the talks, to get a youth perspective of what went down at the negotiations, and to also discuss the civil society demands and collective COP27 demands from the Indig...
Nov 23, 2022•44 min
Research shows that the environment and climate change is a top issue for young people around the world, as youths will be the most affected by climate change and biodiversity loss. With many young, first time voters heading to the polls this GE15, how can youths concerned about climate change drive both their activism and their participation at the ballot box? We discuss this and more with Natasha Zulaikha, a Conservation Scientist and the Co-founder of Coralku . Image Credit: Shutterstock See ...
Nov 16, 2022•17 min
Greenpeace Malaysia recently conducted a study ahead of GE15, scraping Malaysia's Parliamentary Hansard from 2018-2022, and using more than 100 environmental keywords. The results showed that questions with environmental keywords only surfaced about 8.4% of times over the last four years - clearly showing our leaders are not prioritising a holistic and meaningful approach to dealing with environmental crises. We speak to Thing Siew Shuen (Senior Program Manager, Greenpeace Southeast Asia) ...
Nov 16, 2022•17 min
Come December, The UN Biodiversity Conference, the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will take place, and the main objective of the Conference is to adopt the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Since March this year, we've been collaborating with the good folks from Reef Check Malaysia on this series called Biodiversity for Malaysia, a monthly segment which aimed to get everyone on the same page when it comes to all ...
Nov 14, 2022•42 min
Methane emissions account for roughly 25 percent of current global warming, and contribute to climate-related threats including more intense and frequent heat waves and flooding, food insecurity, and poor air quality. According to Malaysia’s third biennial update report to the United Nations, methane emissions contributed 17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2016, with its major source being fugitive emissions from the oil and gas industry. Where does Malaysia’s biggest opportunities for ta...
Nov 09, 2022•34 min
Current estimates put the global tiger population at around 4,500 individuals, having plummeted from the 100,000 tigers estimated at the start of the 20th century, and they are currently found in less than 6% of its historical range. The situation doesn't seem to be getting any better, as detailed in the recently released report titled, Skin and Bones: Tiger Trafficking Analysis from January 2000 – June 2022 , which points to no let-up in tiger trafficking in the last couple of decades. This new...
Nov 07, 2022•33 min
Recent revelations of licences issued for rock quarrying within the Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve (BLFR) have raised more than just eyebrows among environmental conservation groups and the public alike. Many have called on the Selangor state government to address concerns surrounding the establishment of 27 quarries in the Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve, but already across the Rawang/Kuang area, quarries have greatly scarred the landscape in many places leaving no trees. So how could these constitute...
Nov 02, 2022•45 min
It's that time of the month, where we catch up with the good people from environmental journalism portal Macaranga , for a round-up of the top environmental news of the month past. For October's round-up, we speak to Macaranga co-founder Law Yao Hua, and discuss three main topics - firstly, the many issues surrounding quarrying plans for the Bukit Lagong forest reserve, secondly, the Central Forest Spine public outreach exhibition that was organised by the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malay...
Oct 31, 2022•14 min
Ambassador Ken O’Flaherty is the COP26 Regional Ambassador for Asia-Pacific, Caribbean and Small Island Developing States. He worked closely with governments, business and civil society across the region to boost climate action ahead of the COP26 Leaders’ Summit which took place in Glasgow last year, and continues to do so, ahead of the upcoming COP27. He joins us to share more about his reflections of the outcomes of COP26 from last year, his hopes for the upcoming talks in Sharm El Sheikh, and...
Oct 31, 2022•30 min
It's a familiar tale here in Malaysia: a sprawling, thriving rainforest, cleared for development or plantations. Despite pledges to protect our intact forests made on the international stage, back home, we still keep hearing of more forests being degazetted or earmarked for development. In this case, the site in question used to be part of a forest reserve in the Chini-Bera forest complex, home to Orang Asli communities, and a wide array of wildlife too, cleared and developed for a new palm oil ...
Oct 26, 2022•37 min
