• Critics of a government plantation scheme have slammed the program following revelations that only a fraction of forest reserves cleared for plantations over the past decade have actually been replanted.
• An investigation by environmental news site Macaranga found that only 5% of the 77,331 hectares (191,089 acres) of forest reserves cleared in Pahang state for plantations between 2012 and 2020 were replanted.
• A Pahang state opposition lawmaker has called the program a “cover-up” for a logging scheme, while an environmental activist has criticized

A lucrative plot of Tashkent land belonging to a major Uzbek steel plant has been sold to a company close to President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s son-in-law, at a fraction of its market value, documents showed.

• The premium on parcels of land in eight major cities that completed their first round of auctions for the year was up from 2021
• Most of the winning bids in the latest auctions have come from state-owned developers

Main photo: Land in China can only be sold three times a year, according to a centralised scheme introduced by the central government in early 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE