Blessed with six million square kilometres of ocean territory, Indonesia’s fisheries industry could make a larger contribution to its economy if better managed.Southeast Asia’s largest economy is the world’s second largest fish producer after China.
Malaysia prepared to seed clouds after air quality in parts of the country reached unhealthy levels due to smog from forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia, an official said Monday.Smog regularly blankets parts of Southeast Asia during the dry season when burning is used to clear Indonesian land for palm oil, paper plantations and other crops, sparking ire from regional neighbours.In the latest outbreak, parts of Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak on Borneo island have been blanketed ov
Indonesia’s decision to move its capital from Jakarta raises several key questions for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.Faced with notorious traffic jams, rapid sinking and a host of other problems, Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo last week officially announced plans to shift ASEAN’s most populous capital to Kalimantan – an area on Borneo, an island which Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei.With Indonesia located in the Ring of Fire, Kalimantan was identified as a possible lo
The fashion industry’s desire to be on-trend drives its business operations by reducing collection periods and accelerating inventory turns. But high levels of consumption also mean a high level of waste.
It is undeniable that plastic waste contributes to the earth’s ecological devastation and issues in human health. In 2017, industrial ecologist, Roland Geyer, led a study on the ‘Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made’ and estimated that there are more than 8.3 billion metric tons (Mt) of plastics that have been produced since the 1950s.
Oceans play an essential role for life on earth by generating most of the oxygen we breathe, providing us with food, regulating our climate, cleaning the water we drink and delivering a variety of valuable ingredients for medicinal uses.However, humans are continuously threatening the oceans by carrying out destructive fishing practices, overfishing, creating pollution which in turn leads to coral bleaching and other impacts from climate change.
Pressures from population growth and an economic boom have increased demand for water in Vietnam, risking depletion of the valuable resource and threatening the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by up to six percent by 2035 – a year’s worth of GDP growth.About 8.5 million urban citizens in Vietnam lack access to clean water, and in rural areas, about 41 million dwellers do not have clean water supply.
Southeast Asia stands to gain the most from the addition of plastic waste to the Basel Convention earlier this month.
Dante’s Divine Comedy describes one level of hell (the City of Dis) as “Satan’s wretched city…full of distress and torment terrible.” He could well have been describing many modern-day metropolises.The world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, is experiencing a massive wave of urbanisation.
A large portion of the population in Southeast Asia do not have proper information on the air they breathe every day.Released on Tuesday, the 2018 World Air Quality Report from Greenpeace and AirVisual found that while 95 percent of Southeast Asian cities surveyed exceeded the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual exposure guideline, the lack of data from four countries makes it harder for their citizens to be well informed about the daily health risks they face.The repor
Tourism is a powerful tool for development. It represents 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and provides 10 percent of jobs globally. The sector is also interlinked with every other sector in the economy.
Indonesia is home to 521 natural lakes and about 100 reservoirs, covering an area of approximately 21,000 square kilometres (km²). The total volume of water held across the country is approximately 500 cubic kilometres (km³). The largest lake, by both area and volume, is Lake Toba in Sumatra. It holds about 240 km³ of freshwater, and is the largest lake body in Southeast Asia.Lake Toba is an immense volcanic lake covering an area of 1,707 km², making it even bigger than Singapore.
