I may yet post some reflections on my newsletter Movable Worlds in the near future—but for now, you can follow instagram.com/emilydingwrites to see the photo journal I am sharing of my reporting trip.

Start here: instagram.com/p/CrNlh91pa2t

These two photos were taken at my first stop: the village of Mumiang.

#Kinabatangan #Sabah #Malaysia #Borneo #wetlands #mangroves

I'm drawn to places I don’t know much about and on which there isn't too much online. #Sabah has #Malaysia’s largest expanse of #mangroves and the Lower #Kinabatangan-Segama #Wetlands forms the largest contiguous tract in the southern Sulu Sea, but I had never heard of it before. I was only familiar with the Kinabatangan tourists visit for wildlife-spotting river cruises. So my curiosity started from a very basic place: What does this place look like? How do the people there live?

#edwrites

...This is a reminder not to overlook them. Let's recognise the gifts of nature we have before they're on the brink of disappearing.

Also, do wait for the page to finish loading before scrolling through: betweenthelines.my/sabahs-cust…

& Don't forget to subscribe to BTL if you're interested in Malaysian news. The team publishes curated summaries as well as original reportage "specials" like my story. Sign up here: betweenthelines.my

#edwrites #journalism #mangroves #Sabah #Malaysia

Go back to the top of this thread and you'll see one of Wen's stories—a short video on how the indigenous Tombonuo villagers of Kampung Sungai Eloi in Pitas, Kudat, are rehabilitating what's left of the #mangroves around them after a shrimp farm—#Sabah's largest ever—cleared 900 hectares.

She also has an accompanying photo essay for Macaranga:

rainforestjournalismfund.org/s…

As we wrote:

"With this project, we’re attempting to explore a few questions: How effective have [conservation] efforts been and what gaps remain? Can Indigenous communities make a greater case for their economic and conservationist roles, so often underestimated and undervalued? How can local communities and conservationists work with the authorities in common cause? What does proactive, not just reactive, stewardship look like?"

rainforestjournalismfund.org/p…

#Sabah #Malaysia #mangroves #edwrites

I meant to post this a while back. Do watch this short film shot by Yih Wen Chen for New Naratif telling the story of how large swathes of #mangroves in Pitas, Kudat were cleared for #Sabah's largest #aquaculture farm, which failed to take off (along with any promises of jobs supposedly to alleviate poverty)—leaving local villagers to pick up the mess and rehabilitate what's left: rainforestjournalismfund.org/s…

#Malaysia #deforestation

Travelling in #Sabah, it's struck me how many #conservation initiatives are funded by #palmoil companies, who have been a major source of #deforestation in the state. I had also noticed many conservationists working with palm oil plantations, in part because they need to access them to better study the #wildlife that are increasingly found to be roaming there. This threw up questions that led to my latest published story: aljazeera.com/features/2023/6/…

#edwrites #Malaysia