Last year the world lost some 119,000 square kilometers (45,946 square miles) of tree cover – an area the size of Nicaragua – according to satellite data collated by the University of Maryland (UMD) released today by World Resources Institute (WRI).
A film about one of the world's last hunter-gatherer tribes living in Malaysia's rainforest premiers on Thursday, with its indigenous actors urging authorities to formally grant them land rights after a decades-long battle.
KUALA LUMPUR (July 22): Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok has come out to respond to allegations by environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) that native customary land rights (NCR) are being violated in the palm oil industry.
MIRI: A group of Malay villagers in Kampung Usahajaya Tukau near Miri held a peaceful demonstration Sunday (April 28) to highlight their fears over their fate.
The villagers said they have received news that a private developer had acquired a parcel of land for development and that their village will be partially affected.
Sarawak: The Sarawak government’s strategy for economic growth through commercial development of agricultural land has resulted in vast areas of land being opened for large-scale plantations, including oil palm. In some places this has affected lands subject to ‘native customary land rights’.
A few re-alignments have been made on the federal front, but following May 9th, business has continued as usual in Sarawak, the only state not to hold its local elections at the same time.
PETALING JAYA: The Orang Asli community in Grik today claimed that the Perak government has encroached onto their land to carry out logging, barely a month after Putrajaya sued the Kelantan government for a similar alleged infraction.
Villagers from Kampung Tasik Cunex Grik have set up a blockade to prevent lorries from ferrying felled timber from entering the area.
The suit seeks the legal recognition of the Temiar Orang Asli's land rights
MIRI: Two crucial pioneering projects have started in Sarawak. First, an effort to publish the oral history of the 6,000 indigenous settlements statewide, and second, to use drones and GPS devices to do aerial mappings of native land.
The documentation of native oral history is meant to ensure that rich ancestral traditions and ways of life will not be forgotten.
Indigenous communities across Malaysia face relentless harassment, intimidation, arrest, violence and even death as they peacefully resist attempts to force them off land they consider ancestral, a report by Amnesty International reveals today.