On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with our adventurous Middle East-based staff writer John Cannon, who recently traveled the length of the Pan Borneo Highway to assess the positive and negative effects the road could have on local communities, wildlife, and ecosystems.

Cannon spent three weeks traveling the proposed route of the Pan Borneo Highway which is being built to connect the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak as well as the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. The idea is to make commerce and travel easier in a region that is notoriously difficult to navigate, and also to encourage tourists to see the states’ cultural treasures and rich wildlife, from elephants to clouded leopards and crocodiles.

But scientists and conservationists have warned that the highway is likely to harm that very same wildlife by dividing populations and degrading habitat.

You can also read his six-part series detailing the trip and his  “5 revelations from traveling the Pan Borneo Highway.”

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• ‘Full-blown crisis’: North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970
• At the UN, losing the race against time to fight climate change
• ‘The Blob’ is back: Pacific heat wave already second-largest in recent history

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Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

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