- Locals say nearby plantations turned rivers itchy, sour and at times coffee-black – and drove elephants out of the forests into surrounding villages
A Malaysian plantation company, with the Johor royal family as its indirect majority shareholders, may have been developing land well ahead of getting the necessary approval.
Satellite images show that in 2020 to 2021, more than 600 hectares (1,483 acres) of forest on the 3,775-hectare site were cleared in Johor. By June last year, kilometres of new irrigation drains criss-crossed the site, which is sandwiched between forest reserves, plantations, rivers, and villages.
Logging and agricultural activity of such scale needs prior approval from state and federal authorities in Malaysia. The developer must submit an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report to be reviewed and approved by the federal Department of Environment.
Environmental troubles are already prominent around the site. Local villagers told This Week in Asia that other existing plantations had turned an adjacent river sour and sometimes the colour of black coffee; and “homeless” elephants had crossed the river into their village, once uprooting banana plants behind the school and damaging a metal gate to the plantations.