Messy Forest Data in Malaysia Messes Conservation

In a recently published two-part series, local journalism portal Macaranga, in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, identified gaps in forest data for the years 2002—2021, with a focus on Peninsular Malaysia. Their investigations revealed that the data is pretty messy - supposed forest reserves not gazetted, oil palm plantations inside reserves, outdated maps - discrepancies and bad forest data that will hamper Malaysia’s conservation, flood management and sustainability plans, just to name a few. In conjunction with International Day of Forests, we catch up with Law Yao Hua, an environment journalist and editor with Macaranga, and a former fellow with the Rainforest Investigations Network with the Pulitzer Centre, to discuss his navigation through the multiverse of forest data in Peninsular Malaysia. We discuss what official government documents reveal about forest reserve changes in Peninsular Malaysia, and the implications and impacts of inaccurate forest datasets.

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