Green Options

Wildlife authorities rescued an endangered Malayan tiger from a wire snare that sliced the big cat’s paw to the bone.

WWF’s Wildlife Protection Unit made the sad discovery of a male tiger writhing in agony as he tried to pull free of a cruel wire snare set by poachers in the Belum-Temengor forest complex.

40 pangolins - including baby pangolins - have been rescued by Malaysian authorities.

A four-day stakeout by Malaysian special forces along the Sungai Sarang Buaya resulted in the rescue of about 40 pangolins - and the arrest of a smuggler.

Native Malaysian tribespeople are taking to traditional methods of battle — including the use of blowpipes — to combat the destruction of their homeland to satisfy the exploding worldwide demand for palm oil.

The rate at which virgin tropical rainforests are currently being cleared to plant palm plantations to supply the ravenous growth of worldwide palm oil demand is staggering: In Indonesia alone 4.4 million acres of rainforest disappear each year. Given that one American football field is roughly one acre, that’s just about 4.4 million football fields. Truly staggering.

Together, Malaysia and Indonesia account for 80% of worldwide palm oil production, but they also contain more than 80% of the remaining virgin rainforests in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, the only remaining lands in Southeast Asia that are also the best for palm oil production are these vast swaths of virgin rainforest.

Malaysian authorities rescued nearly 100 pangolins from a poacher who was planning to sell the endangered animals for meat and “medicine.”

A raid on a house in northern Kedah by officials from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks yielded 98 pangolins and three kilograms of pangolin scales. The Straits Times reported that the self-employed man in his 40’s was arrested, and faces up to 23 years in jail and a fine, if convicted of the five different illegal possession charges.

Around 22,000 “large flying foxes” — the largest fruit bat in the world — are legally killed every year in Peninsular Malaysia by hunters. At this rate, scientists say the bat could go extinct in the near future.

An initiative to transport lone Borneo rhinos to a secure central location - where they can interact with other rhinos - could mean hope for this extremely rare subspecies.

Tabin Wildlife Reserve located in Sabah, Malaysia is the last home of the Bornean rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni), a distinct subspecies of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis). It is estimated that fewer than 50 Bornean rhinos are still surviving in Sabah. Borneo rhinos are said to be even smaller than Sumatran rhinos, with some standing only three feet tall at the shoulder. Both species are covered with bristly hair that rubs down as they mature and create “tunnels” by crashing through the rainforest.

Sadly, some of these rhinos are living alone in fragmented pockets of forest, cut off from other rhino populations, where they have no hope of meeting another of their kind - and the isolation of these animals could lead to their extinction.

The Thai Navy arrested eight animal traffickers in possession of two tiger carcasses, both chopped in half, and 45 pangolins as they attempted to smuggle the animals across the Mekong River into Lao PDF.

Shown here is a winning green building design for Bird Island, a private and gated residential park in the center of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which peacefully shares the environment with many local and migratory birds.  The Bird Island Green Homes Competition had a challenge for eight of the world’s top architects to try and create eco-friendly living spaces. Global firm Graft Lab submitted plans for Bird Island rendered above. Inhabitat mentions that Bird Island will also be constructed with a fabulous “grey water recycling system that channels water from sinks and showers back to the plumbing”. This eco-resort design is admirably aiming for zero-waste.

On January 28, 2009, the Indonesian Ulemas Council issued a fatwa, a religious edict, forbidding all Muslims from practicing yoga
that includes meditation and chanting.

The council is not a government entity, but it receives funding from the Ministry of Religion. The fatwa is an attempt to influence morality in Indonesia, but yoga class attendance has not been affected by the fatwa. There [...]

Fancy a new online store for eco-friendly children’s products?  Green product website Ambitious Green calls itself a “fun place to buy great products at the center of today’s environmental issues, concerns, and debates.”

Says Ambitious Green: “We think the environment and education are challenging debates worth having. Every time you make a buying decision you are telling manufacturers and the market what’s important to you.   We share the same frustrations you do - finding products that are natural, functional, friendly and fun. We believe that what’s good  for you can be good for the planet.”

Here are a few of the latest toys at Ambitious Green:

Dancing Alligator, $19.99 (shown above) “This award-winning, wooden alligator pull toy struts his stuff as he wiggles, bobs and click-clacks along.”  These toys are made in Thailand by Plan Toys, a green company that emphasizes socially responsible manufacturing.   It’s green because it’s made of organic rubberwood, non-formaldehyde E-Zero Glue, water-based dye, recycled and recyclable material and soy ink and water-based ink.

As the global market for biofuels heats up, much of the demand for biodiesel is being satisfied by clearing virgin rainforests to create oil palm plantations. But, as it turns out, these plantations are an awful substitute for rainforests.

A group of British, German and Danish researchers has found that the biodiversity of oil palm plantations is far lower than that of tropical rainforests and that no amount of plantation management changes could ever possibly make them come close to replicating rainforest diversity.