We must fight harder for our planet

Each Earth Day, we reflect on the state of our planet — and all too often, we find it worse than the year before. Sadly, today is no exception. From the ongoing genocide and ecocide waged on the Palestinians to a surge in anti-environmental policies in the United States, the Earth is facing one of its darkest chapters.

The exit of the US from its Paris Agreement commitments and the continued expansion in fossil fuel use with the mantra of ‘drill-baby-drill’ will only lead the world to more climate calamities, with untold suffering caused by a much hotter planet. The world is certainly not on track to limit temperature rise as per the Paris Agreement’s goals.

We have to step up and continue our efforts at the global level in addressing these challenges, in alliance with other like-minded nations to save the planet, while respecting the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities between developed and developing countries. On the home front, much more remains to be done.

On climate, much greater priority and attention must be given to building our climate resilience, through acceleration of the national adaptation plan by the federal government. State and local governments too must integrate adaptation efforts into planning across all sectors paying particular attention to ensuring food production, water security and health care. While much focus is on the energy transition, not enough attention is being given to adaptation action and efforts to build our resilience to climate impacts. This must change.

On the biodiversity front, as regards the protection of our forests, the oft-repeated claim by the Malaysian government that 55 percent of the country’s land area is still under forest cover should be justified with actual data of how much exactly of these are actually protected or conservation forests. Based on the data published in the Compendium of Environment Statistics 2018 and analysed by Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), 50 percent of the forest cover or 27 percent of our country’s land area has been permanently reserved as production forests, chiefly for logging with a significant portion designated for conversions into monoculture plantations. Only 29 percent of our forest cover or 16 percent of our country’s land area consist of protected or conservation forests. Our forests continue to be under threat of conversion.

As of today, the amendments to the National Forestry Act 1984 have only come into force in Perlis on 1 April 2023 and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan on 1 February 2025. We urge the remaining states in Peninsular Malaysia yet to adopt the National Forestry (Amendment) Act 2022 gazetted on 20 September 2022 to do so immediately.

One of the most significant amendments to the Act is the introduction of a new section 11, replacing the old in relation to the excision of a permanent reserved forest (PRF). The new amendment allows for such excision to take place subject to the conduct of a public inquiry (siasatan awam), in accordance with the rules which are to be drawn up subsequently by the state. We therefore call on the state governments to immediately take steps not only to adopt the amendments to the 2022 Act but to also further gazette PRFs as protection or conservation areas.

We are also witnessing the rise of state governments and companies pushing carbon-credit projects in the forests, claiming that forests are not being logged or converted in exchange for the generation of carbon credits to be sold and traded to companies who purchase these credits to offset their carbon emissions. Concerns abound as to the environmental integrity of such carbon projects, and in particular over whether the local communities and indigenous peoples in the area have been properly consulted, consistent with the principle of free-prior informed consent being followed. Carbon offsets do not lead to real emission reductions and are, in fact a false solution.

Also, unsustainable projects need to stop being promoted, such as reclamation projects around the country, which are not only expensive, but also come with negative environmental and health impacts that destroy invaluable fishery resources and marine biodiversity irreversibly. Some of these environmental consequences cannot simply be mitigated away, as they cause permanent damage to ecosystems that cannot be replaced.

There will always be competition between economic and environmental imperatives, with profits for the industry almost always being prioritised. It is past the time we realise that Mother Earth is at her limit and if we continue to ignore the warning signs we’ve been seeing, the price we pay will be costly.

In line with this year’s Earth Day theme, “Our Power, Our Planet”, as Malaysian citizens, we must remember that each of us holds the power to create change. We are not powerless. Every action counts – whether it’s signing petitions, spreading awareness, contacting your member of Parliament, or demanding accountability of governments and corporations.

Today, and every day, let us commit not only to protecting the plane t— but to standing with each other, in hope and in action, for a more just and sustainable world.

Meenakshi Raman
President
Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Letter to the Editor, 22 April 2025