Earth Matters

The Green Wira Programme by Zero Waste Malaysia is aimed at empowering local school teachers with zero waste knowledge and skill sets to build zero waste schools in Malaysia. The programme ultimately aims to build a waste-free and sustainable future for Malaysia, starting from early education schools. We find out more from the Green Wira Programme Lead, Irene Chooi, from Zero Waste Malaysia. See o...

International Coastal Cleanup Day is a global event that has been running for more than 35 years. Volunteers all around the world engage and encourage their communities to take action by removing trash from beaches or oceans, identifying the sources of the litter, and inspiring change in beating marine debris pollution. Last year, Reef Check Malaysia had almost 10,000 volunteers and picked up an a...

The IPS-MPS '23 - The Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society (IPS) and the Malaysian Primatological Society (MPS), was recently held in Kuching, and the conference was themed "Primates and People: A New Horizon”. Malaysia is a highly primate diverse country with rich natural habitats but currently, most of the primates species in Malaysia are regarded as threatened. We discuss w...

BFM turns 15 on the 4th of September 2023, and to commemorate, we're revisiting some of our best interviews from the years past, and playing you 15-minute snippets from three interviews (or thereabouts) featuring international guests we’ve featured on Earth Matters . In this collection, you will hear from Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, a Primatologist & Anthropologist, Richard Heinberg , a Jour...

Youths United For Earth (YUFE) want to celebrate Malaysia's environmentalism, one youth at a time. The youth-led NGO aims to mobilise Malaysian youths for environmental action through environmental storytelling, grassroots community-building, and policy advocacy. The group recently received the Diana Award, set up in memory of the Princess of Wales, presented to 200 youths worldwide aged 9-25 to a...

As we close yet another month in 2023, we also look back at some of the top environmental news from August, with the help of the co-founders of environmental journalism portal, Macaranga . Today, we're tackling three topics in particular, first the Nature Conservation Agreement in Sabah, considered by many to be a controversial carbon project - we'll break down what it's about, and why there are q...

Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta is our monthly tourism-themed series on Earth Matters, which aims to highlight lesser-known ecotourism spots right here in Malaysia. Done in collaboration with the Ecotourism & Conservation Society Malaysia (ECOMY), we want to take you back to the great outdoors, and experience the many off-the-beaten-track nature spots our country has to offer. For this episode, we're...

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity ( TEEB ) is a global initiative focused on “making nature’s values visible”. Back in early July 2023, the United Nations Development Programme in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam (UNDP Malaysia) unveiled the results of site-level economic valuation exercises conducted in three protected areas in Malaysia. The study estimates that ecosystem ser...

The folks at Zero Waste Malaysia continue to work towards building a waste-free future for Malaysia, with a mission to drive social and systemic change for our country. The group has been keeping busy, and just last month - which was Plastic Free July- saw the team collaborating with Hara Makers where they launched a 10-metre-tall installation made with 3 tonnes of plastic bags at community space,...

Though they registered officially in 2020, the Gibbon Conservation Society or GCS has been running since 2013, marking 10 years of hard work to rescue and rehabilitate gibbons in Malaysia. Gibbons are an endangered species and are threatened primarily by loss of their forest habitat, but also other factors like the illegal wildlife trade, the use of their body parts in Chinese medicines, and poach...

Earlier in May 2023, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned us that we were leaving an "exceptionally long La Niña weather phenomenon that intensified drought and flooding" and that El Niño, its warming opposite in the cycle, would likely be on the cards for 2023. That indeed happened in July, and while these are natural phenomenons, it is also taking place against a background of...

State elections are just around the corner, and #UndIklim-Selangor 2023 is a campaign to present to voters the direct stand of each candidate on matters pertaining to climate action, conservation of natural resources, good governance and more. A joint effort between Gabungan Darurat Iklim Malaysia (GDIMY) and Gabungan Bertindak Malaysia (GBM), it is part of a citizen education series to encourage...

With state elections just around the corner, we catch up with Adam Farhan, the co-founder and director of environmental watchdog RimbaWatch , to suss out how the six states that are heading to the polls have been doing on the environment-front - with a special focus on deforestation - and what voters should consider when choosing their state representatives. Adam also sheds light on a recent repor...

TRAFFIC - the wildlife trade monitoring network - have been working with Pos Malaysia for the past four years to help the postal service better detect wildlife in the mail, which is a massive problem worldwide, with people and businesses using mail and courier services to send live wild animals and their parts and products to customers. We speak to Renee Yee, a Training and Capacity Building Offic...

For our monthly roundup of environmental news from the month of July, we tackle Ecological Fiscal Transfers, ship-source pollution and its impacts on our maritime environments, and the illegal trade of wildlife, with the co-founders of environmental journalism portal Macaranga , Law Yao Hua and Wong Siew Lyn. Image Credit: Afrianto Silalahi / Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in...

Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta is our monthly tourism-themed series on Earth Matters, which aims to highlight lesser-known ecotourism spots right here in Malaysia. Done in collaboration with the Ecotourism & Conservation Society Malaysia (ECOMY), we want to take you back to the great outdoors, and experience the many off-the-beaten-track nature spots our country has to offer. This month, we're headi...

It's International Tiger Day on the 29th of July, celebrated annually to raise awareness for tiger conservation. In Malaysia, we are still fighting tooth and nail to protect the critically endangered Malayan Tiger, our symbol of national pride, and the apex predator in our forests. With stats putting their numbers at less than 150 left in the wild, what more can we do to keep them in the wild, for...

Rising more than 1000m above sea level on the Titiwangsa Range, and straddling the Pahang-Selangor border, Fraser’s Hill is a highland rainforest area that is a popular ecotourism getaway for many, and affectionately known as the little England of Malaysia. There are rumblings that Fraser's Hill might be turned into a state park - though the idea is very early in the development stage - and to bra...

The Life and Times of Jenah is a series of three interconnected animated marine educational videos, which aims to spread awareness on the threats facing the marine environment. Written, directed, produced, illustrated, animated and voiced by an all-local team led by Reef Stakes , the series puts the viewer in the fins of Jenah, a black-spotted snapper, that spends portions of her life cycle in thr...

‘Mummy, Where's My Dorsal Fin?’ follows the adventures of a little Indo-Pacific finless porpoise calf named Aluna and her mother Cheriya, as they explore their beautiful habitat around the Langkawi Archipelago. Described as a story of discovery, learning, and hope in a changing world, the book was also inspired by the natural beauty of Langkawi. We catch up with marine biologist Dr Louisa Ponnampa...

The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) recently held its 59th Meeting , with the aim to explore and illustrate the options and opportunities for balancing science, conservation and society around the world of tropical biodiversity. Environment writer and co-founder of environmental journalism portal Macaranga , Law Yao Hua, was in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, for the meetings, a...

The RM5 billion Nenggiri Hydroelectric Project located in Kelantan is expected to supplement renewable energy for Malaysia, and also potentially generate 2,000 new jobs, on top of mitigating flood issues in the state. But for the Orang Asli in Gua Musang who call the area home, the project will submerge up to 5,834 hectares of forest that are their cultural lands, and force them to leave their hom...

Myles Storey is a wildlife filmmaker, who has worked on productions with the BBC, World Animal Protection, and Roots & Shoots Malaysia, among others. Keen to tell stories that can impact our relationship with nature, Myles produced and directed Finding Solo , a documentary about the last white-handed gibbon in Bukit Serdang, and he was also the wildlife videographer and director of the documen...

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for a new international airport on Pulau Tioman has been made public and is now open for review and comments from the public - plans include 141.6ha of reclamation, moving corals, and quarrying. Pulau Tioman is known for its beautiful beaches, and the island hosts three related marine ecosystems: coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves. Visitors hea...

As June draws to an end, we speak to Law Yao Hua, co-founder of environmental journalism portal Macaranga , to discuss the top environmental news of the month past. We discuss how it has been estimated that there are RM809bil worth of rare earths in Malaysia, making it a hot commodity for state governments to pursue - can this industry be developed sustainably and responsibly? We also discuss the...