By Bhavani Prakash Michelle Desilets is Founder and Executive Director of Orangutan Land Trust, a UK-based NGO which supports sustainable solutions for the long-term survival of the orangutan in the wild. She is also Founder of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK, and Member of the Board of Borneo Orangutan Survival Germany, which supports the largest [...]
By Bhavani Prakash In Dec 2010, 6000 genetically modified (GM) Aedes aegypti sterile male mosquitoes were released in the unhabited forests of Betong, Malaysia, according to the statement by the government run Institute of Medical Research (IMR). The GM mosquitoes were developed by the UK biotech company, Oxitec. The purported aim of the company is to work [...]
by Neo Chai Chin With palm oil companies slashing vast swathes of forest, the Dayaks of West Kalimantan are desperately struggling to save their ancestral lands and way of life On the porch of a wooden house deep in West Kalimantan, a shirtless man sits, staring out at endless rows of palm oil trees surrounding his [...]
Fires are raging across the slopes of Mt. Kenya in Africa, and they may have been set by poachers who target elephants for their ivory tusks, according to the report by Huffington Post on March 20, 2012 . It is a sad event indeed, with the seasonal rains that usually appear this time of year failing [...]
by James H. Wandersee and Renee M. Clary Singapore has urban forests with trees that provide refreshing shade for its citizens. Beginning in the 1960s, the country’s modern founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, had the foresight to promote tree-planting as a means to transform Singapore into a tropical garden city-state. Anyone who comes here today is [...]
By Bhavani Prakash 2011 is the International Year of Forests, and I thought it fitting to conclude the year with a final piece on some of the environmental effects of deforestation and subsequent land use that I observed and learnt about during my field trip a few months ago, to the area of Janda Baik, [...]
Rice means life and survival for billions of people. Relying on a narrow range of rice strains grown in monocultures has led to increased pest problems and erosion of rice biodiversity. Anitha Reddy shares a story of a farmer from India, Ghani Khan, who has successfully eschewed modern hybrid rice seeds to return to traditional varieties of rice [...]
Lim Li Ching, who is co-author of the book “GMO Free” works with the biosafety and sustainable agriculture programs at Third World Network (TWN), an international NGO based in Malaysia. TWN covers developmental issues, policy advocacy work, climate change, WTO, Biosafety issues, to advance social justice with a pro-poor agenda. She is also a Senior [...]
By Bhavani Prakash Dr Vandana Shiva needs little introduction as a prominent environmental, social justice and anti-GM activist. In 2010, she received the Sydney Peace Prize and was named by Guardian UK in March 2011 as one of the top 100 women in the world. In the following interview, she explains the work done at [...]
Though Olive Ridley Sea Turtles are found throughout the world, Orissa – an eastern coastline state of India, is the single largest rookery or breeding ground in the world for these turtles which migrate from the Indian Ocean through the Bay of Bengal every year for mating and nesting. Worshipped by most small fishermen as [...]
