As leaders in tropical rainforest destruction, Malaysia and Indonesia are in the hot seat for our collective planetary health.

Assigning responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic is a tricky business. With over 200,000 global deaths by the end of April 2020, we are collectively despairing. Much finger-pointing (and conspiracy theorizing) has taken place, with all of us searching for someone or something to blame for this devastating outbreak.

The truth is that no one is quite sure what caused this virus. We know that it shares genetic properties with other coronaviruses connected to bat populations. We know that it is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it came from an animal population, and we know the jump from animals to humans most likely took place in Wuhan province, China. …

Rainforest destruction continues while indigenous conservation leaders are in lockdown.

In the Sungai Asap settlement in Sarawak, social distancing is near impossible. This ramshackle town 2 hours east of Bintulu is home to thousands of indigenous people displaced in the early 2000s to make way for a mega-dam. Living in communal longhouses, often with bathrooms and kitchens shared amongst extended family, an outbreak of coronavirus would be disastrous.

Medical facilities here are already stretched, with one small clinic serving the 10,000 strong community. “There’s only one ambulance.” explains Miku Loyang, a local carver of poison blowpipes. “If someone is sick enough to need an ambulance they wait until another sick person comes along so they’re not wasting the drive. …

Want to prevent toxic haze? Start by supporting frontline campaigns

Clouds of toxic haze are drifting across the Malaysian peninsula once again, in the worst uncontrolled burnoff since 2015. Like the Amazon, these smog-belching fires are deliberately lit for agricultural purposes. In this part of the world the main culprits are the palm oil and pulp and paper industries, as slash-and-burn methods are the quickest and cheapest way to clear land to make way for plantations.

We are often asked — how can we prevent this from happening again? And if these fires are being deliberately lit for economic purposes, who are we to tell a developing country not to lift its rural population out of poverty? …

The Amazon is not the only place on fire this month, as industrial agriculture causes devastation across the tropics

August 2019 is a record breaking fire season across the tropics. Most of us saw the disturbing satellite images from the Amazon shared on social media over the last week, our collective horror and sorrow echoing through the chambers of Twitter and Facebook.

What makes it particularly disturbing is the fact that these are not accidental wildfires, but intentionally lit fires in order to clear land for cattle and soy. …

Communities in Malaysian Borneo are embracing micro-hydro as mega-dams leave them energy poor.

FIONA MCALPINE

July 19, 2019

In a plush suburban Berkeley home, newly appointed Malaysian Senator Banie Lasimbang hands around a pelton wheel bucket made from old aluminium beer cans, which are in no short supply in his home state of Sabah. These wheels are used to turn micro-hydro turbines, transforming water and gravity into electricity in Malaysian Borneo’s remote villages.

It’s September, and in a few months, I’m heading to Sarawak — Malaysian Borneo’s other state in addition to Sabah — to chat with some of the villages that have not only adopted micro-hydro systems, but have actively resisted the mega-hydro dam projects that threaten their land. They are part of the Ockham’s Razor moment that is taking place in the climate debate as many Indigenous communities are showing that the simplest pathway is often the best. Whether it be implementing basic technology at the grassroots level, using forest resources in a way that is mutually beneficial for plants and people, or knowing when to simply leave forests alone in order for them to recover, we have much to learn from Indigenous solutions to the climate crisis. …

This week, Oxfam Australia released its shocking report What She Makes. The report outlined what many of us working in the garment industry suspected: that major Australian brands such as Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On are not paying their workers a living wage. Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam working for Australia’s $23.5 billion fashion industry were being paid as little as 51 cents an hour. A vast majority of women interviewed simply could not make ends meet.

At the same time, Cotton On’s homepage for its Australian site touts an International Women’s Day promotion, where you can buy a $20 t-shirt and Cotton On will make a $10 donation (although who or where that donation goes is unspecified and the links to the promotion no longer function). They are also selling a ‘girl power’ collection of tees being sold at two for $30. …

Sandwiched between the Indonesian border to the east, Mount Murud to the north and the Pulong Tau National Park to the west, the Kelabit Highland town of Bario is the kind of Shangri La that Borneo dreams are made of.

This remote region of Sarawak is what anthropologist Tom Harrison called “the last frontier of the tropical world”. Only accessible by 10-seater propeller plane, the Highlands are home to the descendants of headhunters and nomads who believed that all human beings originally descended from the surrounding mountains.

The Highlands are now famous for their deliciously chewy short grain rice, spectacular daily sunsets, and the sweetest pineapples you will ever taste. We’re in Bario to learn from indigenous leaders about how they saved their ancestral land, and about the monumental challenges still faced in protecting it. …

New Greenpeace report on clearcutting by palm oil groups underscores how practice persists in tropical forests.

Earlier this month, Malaysia’s Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok announced that the government is committed to maintaining at least 50 percent forest cover nationwide, and will not allow any more expansion of oil palm plantations. This was not announced as part of an official policy platform, but after Kok’s keynote address at the Corporate Malaysia Summit.

Kok framed this as a business decision, pointing to the global oversupply of palm oil. She suggested farmers should diversify their crops and that Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) compliance would improve the viability of the industry. …