• Critics of a government plantation scheme have slammed the program following revelations that only a fraction of forest reserves cleared for plantations over the past decade have actually been replanted.
• An investigation by environmental news site Macaranga found that only 5% of the 77,331 hectares (191,089 acres) of forest reserves cleared in Pahang state for plantations between 2012 and 2020 were replanted.
• A Pahang state opposition lawmaker has called the program a “cover-up” for a logging scheme, while an environmental activist has criticized

Govt. has declared our ancestral lands as wildlife reserve areas, say farmers

In Chundikulam village, located on the eastern tip of Jaffna Peninsula, farmers are facing a peculiar challenge.

Nayiare Noonkiba does not stand out from other Maasai women in Mara North despite the powerful position she holds in her community. 

An owner of huge swathes of land, a leader and a women's rights advocate across the Mara conservancies, Noonkiba's influence in her community is unmatched. 

At Nashulai Conservancy, Noonkiba sits on the powerful land control board. She also owns land in five conservancies dotting the Mara.

Livestock farmers in Gomba District have asked Parliament to swiftly intervene and block attempts by National Forestry Authority (NFA) to parcel out the remaining part of two central forest reserves of Kalombe and Nsowe to private investors.
NFA is mandated to manage all central forest reserves in the country.

• Indonesia’s annual fire season has started again, with hotspots detected in 10 provinces.
• Some of the fires have been detected in protected areas with large swaths of peatland.
• The government says it’s preparing to carry out cloud seeding to induce rainfall in affected areas.
• However, environmentalists have called for more traditional methods of law enforcement to prevent fires breaking out in the first place.

Four years ago, Phu Thap Boek -- a popular mountainous attraction in Phetchabun province -- became synonymous with the success of the military regime in reclaiming forest land, or the Tuang Kuen Phuen Pa campaign when the state took back forest land from illegal occupants.

The Ministries of Environment, and Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction have listed the Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary in Koh Kong province and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province as state land to eliminate land grabbing offences.

The operations have gained support from community members who expect forest crimes to decline with the move.

A notice by the Ministry of Environment seen by The Post on Sunday said it is listing two natural protected areas – Peam Krasop Wildlife and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuaries as state land.

To more effectively guard forests and stem climate change, "simply designating a place as protected can't be the beginning and the end of a conservation effort"

LONDON - Expanding the planet's protected natural areas to safeguard vanishing forests and other ecosystems, and the species they protect, is unlikely to be effective on its own as human encroachment into reserves grows, scientists warned Tuesday.

Abundant downpours during the rainy season bring deadly floods every year but officials are increasingly worried about another trend: diminishing water reserves

FREETOWN, Aug 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Half the year, Iyatunde Kamara worries torrential rains will wash her house off its hillside and into the rivers of waste that flow through Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

The other half, she rarely has enough water to fill a pot.

• Newly released data indicate the tropics lost around 120,000 square kilometers (around 46,300 square miles) of tree cover last year – or an area of forest the size of Nicaragua.
• The data indicate 36,400 square kilometers of this loss – an area the size of Belgium – occurred in primary forest. This number is an increase over the annual average, and the third-highest amount since data collection began.