Category: Environment EN

Sahabat Alam Malaysia’s (SAM) field staff has stumbled upon a huge pile of seized logs at the logpond of Sungai Pelutan in Middle Baram, Sarawak recently. To our dismay, the seized logs were of the Tapang species (Koompassia excelsa). Tapang is a protected plant species under the Second Schedule of the Sarawak Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 because it is rare and because it is an important...

SAM deplores the decision of the Pahang State Government to permit forest conversion activities to take place within the Lesong Permanent Reserved Forest (PRF) in Kuala Rompin. On September 25, The Star reported that the Pahang Forestry Department had reasoned that since a third of the Lesong PRF is deemed to contain poor quality timber, “hence, a decision was made by the Pahang state...

Cancer caused almost 70% of the 3,887 health-related deaths in the atomic energy hubs in India over the last 20 years. In all, 2,600 succumbed to cancer in 19 centres between 1995 and 2014. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), under the Department of Atomic Energy, had another shocking revelation: 255 employees took their own lives while in harness in the same period, meaning an average of...

CAP and SAM read with disdain regarding another proposed mammoth development project, this time in Batu Ferringhi. The development rush in Penang is beginning to wreak havoc due to the island’s inability to absorb the burden of development. From the hills to the beaches, very few places are held sacred.  Penang has lost its charm, slowly losing its greenery and its original shoreline. Even...

In recent times, there has been considerable debate on the benefits of landfills and incinerators in Malaysia by both landfill operators and pro-incinerator lobbyists who have been using the media to present their arguments. The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) would like to highlight that instead of harping on polluting and wasting methods such as landfills and incinerators, the Zero...

by Ronald McCoy A speech last week by Dato’ Mah Siew Keong, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, at an event organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) was reported in Malaysiakini. The minister urged critics of nuclear energy to keep an “open mind”, as the government had decided to table the Atomic Energy Regulatory Bill in parliament later this year....

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) read with utmost concern the announcement by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Mah Siew Kiong on the government’s insistence to pursue nuclear power generation as a future energy source for the country. Last week, Dato’ Mah revealed at a forum organized by the Asian Strategy and Leadership...

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) calls on the government to urgently review and revamp the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process in Sarawak due to its inadequacies, specifically on its lack of mandatory public participation. Unlike its Federal counterpart, the Sarawak EIA law excludes mandatory public participation in the process, relegating the matter to the discretion of individual project...

Four national NGOs express concern that the Federal Government’s Department of Environment has ignored their request for a detailed environmental and social assessment of the controversial Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (KIDEX), and reiterate their concerns about the adverse impacts of constructing a fully elevated expressway over established residential suburbs and urban areas. On 4 June 2014,...