Mongabay series: Southeast Asian infrastructure

Facing displacement by massive infrastructure projects, villages in Malaysia's Sabah state work to shape their own development.

Dozens of indigenous people gathered in a village in western Indonesia last month to protest against the development of a planned 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam that threatens to evict them from land they hold sacred.

Transport infrastructure is a key part of Kalimantan's development plans, but conservationists fear a planned bridge in Balikpapan will have devastating environmental impacts.

PURWOKERTO, Indonesia — This January, the people of Karangtengah Village in Central Java were surprised to find that the river running past their homes had turned murky. Not only do…

Plans are underway for the construction of a massive superhighway on the highly biodiverse Palawan Island in the Philippines. The project would aim to expand the island’s existing road into…

After laying a 700-meter plastic-tar road at a university campus in Bali, Indonesian officials announced plans to use the material on roads in Jakarta and other cities.

When Haissazc Shuqkin Hisham traveled home to the northeastern state of Kelantan to celebrate the major Muslim festival of Hari Raya this year, he had no idea it would end…

One of the last and largest remnants of tropical rainforest in Asia is under threat from multiple road development plans. This forest complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as…

Despite the 28 years that have passed since the Iron Curtain fell, the Western red deer (Cervus elaphus) living on either side of the Czech Republic and Germany have never…

Indonesia's Leuser Ecosystem — one of the largest expanses of tropical rainforest in the world and an ecological hotspot celebrated as the last place on earth where orangutans, rhinos, tigers…

JAKARTA -- Indonesia is suing an arm of Thailand’s biggest energy group, PTT, for the equivalent of more than $2 billion over a 2009 oil spill the archipelago country says…

MAKASSAR, Indonesia — Sand mining in the waters off the southern tip of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island has been put on hold by the provincial government after multiple ferocious rejections from…

ULU MUDA, Malaysia — On a dusty roadside in northwestern Malaysia, the drivers of three trucks laden with logs are lounging beneath an open-sided hut while they wait for officials…

CENTRAL KALIMANTAN, Indonesian Borneo — Dense vegetation presses up to the banks of the Lamandau River, with tree branches dropping low overhead to form a natural tunnel. Occasionally, the calls…

A damning review of plans for the controversial Pak Beng hydropower dam on the Mekong River in Laos was released this week by US-based advocacy group International Rivers, adding weight…

After coming under public scrutiny, Central Kalimantan Governor Sugianto Sabran halted the construction of a railroad being built to transport coal through forested areas of the province. The governor's decision…

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia – On a soft couch in the chilled lobby of a luxury hotel, Mason Campbell shifts somewhat uncomfortably in his dark suit. He’s waiting to head to a…

HANOI, Vietnam – Nearly 200 experts, academics and officials from around the world gathered last week in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi for an international forum on sustainable infrastructure. The…

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) government is actively pursuing the potential of developing a coal mining industry for the first time in the country’s history. Two years ago, it channeled…

The Indonesian government appears to be backtracking on its aggressive 35,000-megawatt, coal-centric energy development plan. The ambitious 35,000 megawatts of new electricity generation projects were to be completed by 2019,…

SUKAU, Malaysia – At first blush, the muddy waters of the Kinabatangan River in northern Borneo seem to laze through a hodge-podge of sleepy fishing and farming villages. The river…

In October 2014, when developers entered Seko and Central Seko to begin preliminary work on a 480-megawatt hydroelectric dam, the communities living there say no one asked their permission. The…

Controversial plans to build a bridge over the Kinabatangan River in Malaysian Borneo's Sabah state have been canceled, announced Sabah Forest Department Chief Conservator Sam Mannan. The announcement was made…

PENANG, Malaysia — Fisherman Liew Hock Choon, 50, cut the outboard engine and explained that we have arrived at the position of one of his fish traps. “No GPS,” he…

British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto was for 45 years the majority-owner of the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea (PNG). But now it has…

NORTH LUWU, Indonesia — Benyamin Langga invited me to walk with him along the rice field embankment, climbing up a hill and then down a steep slope. At 60 years…

KRATIE PROVINCE, Cambodia — “If the dam is built, it will be like before, in the time of the Khmer Rouge when we all had to move,” said Plau Saret,…

The Indonesian archipelago is home to a myriad of plants and animals, including Sumatran tigers, birds of paradise, orangutans and leatherback turtles. It is also home to extensive mineral resources…

Indonesian New Guinea holds some of the largest remnants of old-growth tropical forest on the planet. Yet the region faces increasing pressure to share its riches with the rest of…

During 74 days in late 2009, a leak in the Montara offshore drilling platform gushed tens of thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea, a body of water…