RM600 billion Forest City project behind mass fish death, say farmers

Source: The Malaysian Insider

Published on 15th March, 2015 by Mohd Farhan Darwis

Yusaini Majid, 35, says his boss will close down the fish farm because fish keep dying in the Tanjung Kupang waters. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, March 15, 2015.

Silence now hangs over the dozen fish farms in the Tanjung Kupang waters in the Johor Strait, near a massive land-reclamation project for the RM600 billion Forest City development, which fishermen and farmers suspect contributed to the mass fish deaths in the area earlier this month.

Once a bustling hive of fishing activity, the area near Kampung Pendas, Gelang Patah, is now quiet, the stillness broken only by the sound of the waves lapping against the wooden stilts of the farms, barking of dogs and fish farm operators packing up their items.

Yusaini Majid, 35, has worked at one of the fish farms for more than three years, but he said the farm’s owner wanted to close it down as he was unable to recoup the losses.

“This will be our last month operating. The boss is upset, he doesn’t want to farm fish any more because they keep dying.
“I don’t know what will happen to the farm, the cost of repairs would go up to hundreds of thousands of ringgit,” Yusaini told The Malaysian Insider, adding that he was unsure what to do once the fish farm closed down.

Yusaini was luckier than other farmers. He had acted quickly and managed to save over half of his stock. But he said the remaining fish were of the cheaper kind, which could only fetch up to RM50 a kilogramme.

This is not the first time the area has been hit by mass fish deaths. In the past, locals have blamed Forest City’s land-reclamation works for the deaths, although the developer, Country Garden Pacific View (CGPV), has denied it.

Buy wisely for the environment, scientist Jane Goodall tells consumers

Source: Malaysian Insider

Published on 30th January, 2015 by Melati A. Jalil

Primatologist, conservationist and anthropologist Dr Jane Goodall says consumers must be aware of their buying choices if they cared about the environment. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, January 30, 2015.

Consumers need to question their purchasing decisions and ask if what they buy will contribute to a better world, renowned primatologist, conservationist and anthropologist Dr Jane Goodall said today speaking for the first time in Malaysia.

While tackling mega-projects that harmed the environment was difficult, consumers can begin to address social and environmental problems by asking basic questions about who and what their purchases affected.

“How is this product made? Where did it come from? Did it involve child slavery or child labour? Did it involve cruelty to animals? Did it help the environment?

“If you start thinking like that, you find that these little choices do make a difference,” Goodall said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, where she had given a talk titled “Reasons for Hope”, where 2,000 people attended.

She tied in the choice to eat less meat as one of the ways consumers could make a decision in favour of the environment, noting that farming of meat to meet demand sometimes involved animal cruelty and contributed to the clearing of forests to make way for the livestock industry.

Can Borneo’s Tribes Survive ‘Biggest Environmental Crime of Our Times’?

Source: National Geographic Published on 11th January, 2014 by Simon Worrall

Politically connected timber barons have destroyed most of Borneo’s rain forest. The Penan are fighting to hold on to what’s left.

Ancient rain forests give ground to a barren landscape of oil palm plantations and access roads in Sarawak, one of two states in the Malaysian island of Borneo. More than 90 percent of Borneo’s primary forest has been destroyed. Photography by Mattias Klum, National Geographic Creative

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called the deforestation of Sarawak, a sliver of rain forest on the island of Borneo, in Malaysia, “probably the biggest environmental crime of our times.” In his new book Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia,Lukas Straumann investigates that crime. Straumann is director of theBruno Manser Fund, which works to protect tropical rain forests.

Speaking from his office in Zurich, Switzerland, Straumann describes the nexus of corruption and weak governance that has allowed Malaysia’s timber barons to destroy much of Sarawak’s rain forest and export that model to other parts of the world, how his organization is using everything from GPS mapping to the courts to help the Penan people of Borneo fight for their homeland, and what we can do to assist them.

Many readers will not be familiar with Sarawak. Give us a virtual tour.

Sarawak is a state the size of England—one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, which is the world’s third largest island. It also contains one of the oldest rain forests on Earth, which once almost entirely covered the island. But today less than 10 percent of the primary forest is left. Sarawak is one of the hotspots of global deforestation.

Gordon Brown called the deforestation of Sarawak one of history’s worst environmental crimes. Give us a picture of the destruction.

Sarawak possesses one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth. Initially, logging companies come in for so-called selective logging, taking the oldest and most valuable trees out. A couple of years later they come back and get the rest of the bigger trees. Often they return for a third time, after which nothing much is left to be harvested.

If indigenous communities

Duo on environmental, humanitarian walk

Source: The Borneo Post

Published on 9th October, 2014 by Rebecca Chong

KOTA KINABALU: Two men, each carrying 20kg of backpack, decided to walk 2,500 kilometres from Tawau to Kuching to raise awareness on positive environmental and humanitarian projects in Borneo.

The duo, David Atthowe, 25, from Norfolk England, and Yusep Sukmana, 24, from Bandung Indonesia, calling themselves the Nomadic Lion, attended a press conference here yesterday after 47 days of walking from Tawau to Kota Kinabalu, which covers a distance of 780 kilometres.

Their planned journey which will cover Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei, will take about five months and will be made into a documentary focusing on positive environmental and humanitarian projects and solutions.

Walking and relying solely on the help of people they meet along the way for food and hospitality, David, the founder of Nomadic Lion, said they had been blessed as the people they meet here (Sabah) are very helpful and supportive towards their cause.

“We share positive stories when learning from the locals here. We focus a lot in documenting our journey and take pictures every day to spread the positivity to the world through the social media,” he said, giving an example that the duo had made the Society for the Deaf in Lahad Datu known to the public.

Respite for nature lovers

Source: The Star

Published on 8th September, 2014 by SHEILA SRI PRIYA

Lee’s wife Lee Soo Soo (left) and another hiker Michael Soong holding up large tree leaves that they found while hiking in Kota Damansara.

PETALING Jaya was once the satellite town for Kuala Lumpur and in the 1950s, it was mostly made up of rubber estates.

Today, the city is home to some of the more expensive townships in the country with popular business hubs in various areas.

Although many high-rise developments dot the city’s skyline, there are few precious green patches left that offer respite for nature lovers.

Among them are Bukit Gasing and Kota Damansara Community Forest Reserve.

These two locations are now popular recreational areas among hikers, especially during the weekends and public holidays.

They provide hikers a quick gateway from the hustle and bustle of city life while affording them the chance to enjoy nature during short hiking trips.

Some of the hikers wake up bright and early to enjoy the serene and sunny atmosphere in Bukit Gasing.

Mining protester blacklisted and refused entry to Malaysia

Source: The guardian

Published on 1st September, 2014 by Helen Davidson

Natalie Lowrey was detained and sent to Bali, allegedly because of her involvement in demonstations against Lynas Corporation

Environmental activist Natalie Lowrey says she was denied access to her lawyer and made to sleep on a cold floor. Photograph: AAP

A Sydney-based New Zealand activist has been refused entry to Malaysia after being blacklisted by police, believed to be because of her involvement in protests against an Australian-owned rare earth mining company.

Natalie Lowrey was returning to Malaysia to act as an observer to the trials of 15 Malaysians who were arrested alongside her at a 1,000-strong protest against Lynas Corporation in June at the company’s Advanced Materials Plant in Kuantan.

Environmental activists say the Lynas plant produces toxic waste that is affecting local communities and accuse the company of avoiding transparency over where and how the waste will be stored once its temporary operating licence expires this week.

“Possibly they’ve used the attention I’ve drawn to a major environmental and social justice issue here, as an example, and they don’t want me to come back,” Lowrey told Guardian Australia on Monday.

“I arrived at five to eight last night, I handed my passport to immigration and the officers went away then they came back and got me and took me to a waiting room,” said Lowrey.

“Eventually they told me that the Malaysian police – not immigration – had blacklisted me from Malaysia,” she said, adding that no explanation was given.

“I had a couple of lawyers in [Kuala Lumpur] who were at least trying to get me deported straight to Sydney instead of via Bali.”

Lowrey said her lawyer was denied access to her and she was kept overnight at an area near the transfer counter. She claimed she was denied food and water and slept on the cold floor until early this morning, when she was handed to Air Asia for her flight back to Bali.

At the protest in June, Lowrey was arrested and detained for six daysover breaches of Malaysia’s immigration act and peaceful assembly act.

Lowrey was eventually released without charge and was told she could come back to the country, but the 15 Malaysians protesters – who have reportedly been gagged from speaking publicly – face jail sentences of more than two years if convicted under penal code offences including rioting and breaches of the peaceful assembly act.

Malaysia’s fish listener hunts undersea sounds

Source: Aquila Style

Published on 19th August, 2014 by Shannon Teoh

Sixty-eight-year-old fish listener Harun Muhammad clings onto his fishing boat at sea near Setiu lagoons. AFP Photo / Manan Vatsyayana

SETIU, August 19, 2014 (AFP) – One hand clinging to the side of his boat, Harun Muhammad submerges himself, eyes and ears wide open, underwater as he “listens” for fish sounds emanating from the blue depths.

Harun is one of Malaysia’s last “fish listeners,” and he and his apprentice son Zuraini are believed to be the only active practitioners of this mysterious and dying local art.

“When you listen, it is like through a looking glass — you can see mackerel, sardine,” said Harun, 68, who has fished the Setiu lagoons on Malaysia’s rural east coast his whole life.

“For us, we only look for gelama (a type of croaker). But in the schools of gelama, there will be other fish. The gelama is the king of fish.”

Other fish listeners have passed away, retired or turned to modern fish-detection technology as the traditional practice has retreated in the face of dwindling catches and proliferating undersea noise.

Studies show Malaysian waters lost 92 percent of fishery resources between 1971 to 2007 due to overfishing.

“You can’t copy our technique. You must gain the skill and learn the lay of the waters,” said Harun.

“The wholesalers tell me, ‘if you’re gone, there will be no more gelama’,” which fetches up to ten times the price of similarly sized fish.

Sounds fishy

“Pak Harun”, as he is known locally — “Pak” is a Malay honourific similar to “Uncle” — finds it hard to describe exactly how fish sound, but likens it to pebbles being dropped into water.

“They have a voice. This sound is this fish, that sound is another. When someone is new, they can’t tell one fish song from another.”

Blast fishing in Borneo: ‘bombs are quick, but they kill the coral reefs’

Source: the guardian

Published on 1st July, 2014 by Johnny Langenheim

A former blast fisherman now patrols and protects a coral reef, and could help make a million hectare marine park a reality

Abdul Karim Laing: ‘I use nets and lines and it is enough to feed my family. I don’t think it makes life easier if you use bombs’. Photograph: James Morgan

Abdul Karim Laing used to be a bomb fisherman. “I started in 1990,” he explains. “My friend was catching a lot of fish – it turned out he was using dynamite and he taught me. I got good at it.”

Laing lives in a tiny village called Berungus in Sabah province, on the north coast of Malaysian Borneo. This is the spectacular but volatile Sulu seascape that separates the southern Philippines from Malaysia.

Western Sabah made headlines last year when an armed group from the Philippines claiming to represent the long defunct Sultanate of Sulu ‘invaded,’ holing up in a village before Malaysian security forces chased them off. Stateless Bajau Laut sea nomads drift along the porous marine border – as do pirates and Abu Sayaff Islamist separatists, known for their penchant for kidnappings.

But the seas off Sabah are also rich in coral reefs and a wide variety of pelagic and reef fish species. Whales and endangered turtles migrate through these waters and elusive dugongs graze on sea grass beds. Most of the coastal communities here derive their income from fishing. And dynamite and cyanide have both proven alarmingly popular amongst small-scale fishers struggling to compete with industrial trawlers and purse seines.

Laing used bombs to catch fish for a decade. The devices were – and still are – common across South East Asia’s ‘Coral Triangle‘, because they’re so easy to make. Fishermen first got hold of unexploded ordnance from American and Japanese soldiers during World War II. Dynamite, though rare, is still used today – but homemade bombs can be made from easily obtainable, everyday products.

According to Laing, all you need is potassium nitrate in the form of fertilizer, gasoline, a beer bottle and phosphorus from matchsticks mixed with the strike-strip to make a rudimentary fuse. They can cost as little as a pound. Lobbed into a shoal, these bottle bombs rupture fishes’ swim bladders, causing them to float to the surface where they are easily collected.

But they also decimate coral reefs – a single beer bottle can blast a crater two to three metres in diameter, while the accompanying rubble stifles surrounding corals, preventing recovery. Sometimes they explode prematurely, maiming or even killing fishermen.

Australian activist Natalie Lowrey freed from Malaysia cell

Source: news.com.au

Published on 28th June, 2014

Released … Natalie Lowrey, right, at a logging protest outside Parliament House. Source: News Limited

SYDNEY woman Natalie Lowrey has been released after being detained for six days in Malaysia, where she was protesting against an Australian company’s metals plant.

Ms Lowrey was arrested on Sunday while demonstrating at Lynas’ controversial plant for rare earths, which are used in tech products like smartphones.

Police were weighing a charge of unlawful assembly, which carries a maximum two-year jail term.

But on Friday night, as the New Zealander was preparing to spend a weekend behind bars with no visitors, she was suddenly released on bail.

“It was a big surprise, I didn’t believe it until I had changed out of my purple jail uniform,” she said.

“I felt very strong the whole week because I knew there were vigils all over Australia and Malaysia for me. I have a lot of people to thank.”

Ms Lowrey was released along with 15 Malaysians who had also been arrested.

The lack of transparency around Ms Lowrey’s detention concerned lawyers and NGOs, who collected more than 15,000 signatures on a petition to free her.

She has her passport back and plans to leave Malaysia next week.

First, the Bondi resident hopes to spend a few days in the area that inspired her to campaign against the Lynas plant.

Protesters say the plant, in the eastern state of Pahang, will leave behind radioactive waste that will endanger the community and the coastal environment.

Ms Lowrey on Saturday went for a swim at the beach, enjoyed a good meal and thanked local campaigners for their support.

“I feel very strongly that Australian companies have to be accountable for their actions overseas,” she said.

Malaysians Protest Anew Lynas Rare Earths Plant; Aussie Environmental Protester Among Those Arrested

Source: International Business Times

Published on 24th June, 2014 by Vittorio Hernandez

About 1,000 protesters blocked the entrance of the Lynas Advanced Materials facility in Gebeng, Kuantan, on Sunday as Malaysians push anew for the closure of the facility.

REUTERS
Opponents to the controversial Lynas rare earths processing plant in Malaysia now clamored for the resignation of the four ministers who approved the awarding of the temporary operating license (TOL) to Australian miner Lynas Corp, after the latter denied the existence of a provision in its license which states that the plant’s residue must be shipped out of Malaysia.

The Kuantan police arrested 16 demonstrators, 14 men and two women, who were detained for illegal assembly and rioting, reports Bernama.

Among those arrested is Natalie Lowrey, an Australian environmental protester. She was arrested 4 pm on Sunday and held in the Kuantan Police Station overnight, according to Tully McIntyre, an Australian anti-mines campaigner.

“She’s a bit unsure of the charges that she’ll be facing today in court. I seems one of the police, the head of police here in Kuantan, has stated that she may just be charged with breaching her visa, but there is talk that she could face charges in the Malaysia Riot Act,” McIntyre said.

She said the massive opposition against the plant continues even if the Australian company-owned Lynas plant started to operate in January 2013 after months of delay due to opposition from Malaysians and pro-environment groups over fears of radioactive contamination.

In September, Lynas’s two-year operating licence is due for renewal.