After a tip about unsustainable logging at a Malaysian state-run oil palm plantation, former Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) Fellow Low Choon Chyuan launched a yearlong investigation, uncovering “the plantation’s failure, environmental impacts, and multiple loans from a local bank.”
“The investigation exposed the structural weaknesses in Malaysia’s forest management,” he said. “Despite various environmental commitments and promises given by the local palm oil industry, this case proved that poor enforcement and monitoring by the government, and the inconsistencies among different ministries in the government, has enabled bad actors to act with impunity."
In 2015, state-owned Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Pahang (PKNP) began planting oil palms in Hulu Tembeling, Jerantut, Pahang, near Taman Negara National Park, a dense mature forest with rich, but fragile, biodiversity. When Choon Chyuan visited in 2023, he saw large-scale mismanagement—the project was mainly used to clear the forest.
In this article, Choon Chyuan explains how to prepare for environmental reporting using QGIS and satellite imagery, track movements with a mobile app, follow the palm oil supply chain, and uncover project financing.
Understanding the project and its surroundings
Before we went on the ground, we wanted to know the exact location and size of the PKNP plantation project. We found the project’s boundaries on its environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, which we obtained from a source. We used QGIS to georeference the project area and compare it with satellite imagery to see whether deforestation was happening outside the project’s range.
To understand the surroundings of the project area, I searched whether there was any federal zoning such as forest reserve, protected area, environmentally sensitive areas, or water catchment areas. Rimbawatch, an environmental watchdog, published a list of data containing map files of these protected areas.
We found that the Taman Negara National Park and tigers reserve state park are located very near to the project area. It is very powerful visually, to show the proximity of the project and protected areas. I used QGIS and Google Earth Pro to analyze and map this data.
Satellite imagery research
Using the Planet Explorer plugin in QGIS, we mapped deforestation in the project area from 2019 to 2023. We chose 2019 because if any oil palm plantation in Malaysia was involved in clearing natural forest after December 31, 2019, they will lose the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification, a requirement to legally sell palm oil.
Gathering data from the field trip
After completing our desk research, we visited the project area. Aligning online research with on-the-ground reporting was valuable but challenging, especially geolocating events and observations on digital maps.
Wikiloc is a mobile navigation app for hikers, but I used it to record my trails during my reporting trip even if my phone has no signal or Wifi. Subsequently I exported the trail data to QGIS and compared where I was with the project area.
I cross-checked my field findings with satellite imagery. For instance, a villager told me that logging had devastated a river’s aquatic life. Using high-resolution imagery from Earth Genome, a Pulitzer Center partner, we confirmed the plantation had cleared the riparian area, violating its own EIA and industry standards.
Monitoring forest changes through GFW
I also uploaded the project range data to Global Forest Watch (GFW) and enabled notifications for fire alerts and forest changes. It helped me to keep track of whether the logging is still ongoing, see the frequency, and monitor the area that was cleared.
Tracking the supply chain
Next, I wanted to find out where the palm oil went.
I found Palmoil.io, an online database of plantation locations, ownership, and supply chain information. However, I wasn’t able to find much information on the PKNP plantation because it has very low yield production.
MSPO, the Malaysian certification body, has a website called MSPO Trace, which aims to provide traceability for palm oil products. Here, I found an audit report on PKNP plantation, which stated that the plantation has a very low yield performance compared to the average oil palm harvest of Peninsular Malaysia.
According to the report, crops in “almost 90 percent” of the area were damaged by elephant encroachment. This was in line with my findings on the ground: Although the plantation company claimed that it wanted to build an oil palm plantation to boost the local economy, it showed little interest in managing the plantation after logging the forests.
Discovering the funder
In the process of researching PKNP’s corporate profile, I found out that PKNP received a loan from a Malaysian bank to support its plantation in Hulu Tembeling, based on its response to a financial audit in 2017.
To learn more, I needed PKNP’s annual reports. However, in Malaysia, government-linked company (GLC) reports are not public. Federal GLC reports are temporarily held by parliament, while state GLC reports are kept by the state assembly.
I managed to obtain them from a state assembly official and they showed that Bank Islam, a Malaysian bank, was financing PKNP’s plantation project through the latter’s subsidiary PKNP Agro Tech Sdn Bhd (PASB), a private limited company.
Then I bought PASB’s audited financial statements from a government database called My Data SSM. The documents showed that Bank Islam issued loans totalling up to RM52.07 million (USD $11.65 million) between 2015 and 2023. Thanks to the support from the Pulitzer Center, I attended Finance Uncovered’s online course on understanding company financial statements, which taught me how to analyze financial reports and find red flags.
Photo by Feyza Bastık.
This article was originally published by the Pulitzer Center. An edited version was published on IJNet with permission.