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Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Mining · Singapore · 2018

Malaysia banned sea-sand exports to Singapore in 2018, reported only in 2019

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 1 none on record · 6 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

Malaysia banned sea-sand exports to Singapore in October 2018 without public announcement. Sand mining in the Mekong delta, which a counterfactual model links to bed lowering, is one of the pressures on the delta.

What?
Malaysia banned sea-sand exports to Singapore in October 2018 without public announcement BusinessLive (Reuters)
Where?
Malaysia and Singapore; sand mining in the Mekong delta (Vietnam) Earth Observatory of Singapore
When?
Ban in October 2018, reported in 2019; import figures for 2018 and 2023 BusinessLive (Reuters)
Who?
Gained
  • Singapore, as buyer of imported sand — recorded sand imports of $57.7 million in 2023 OEC
Lost
Harmed
None on record
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
Sand is exported from source countries to Singapore; the counterfactual model links sand mining in the Mekong delta to bed lowering and salinity rise. Earth Observatory of Singapore
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Malaysia banned sea-sand exports to Singapore in October 2018 without public announcement; the ban became public in 2019, Reuters reported.

Singapore recorded sand imports from Malaysia worth $347 million in 2018, equal to 59 million tonnes. Its total sand imports were $57.7 million in 2023, of which $50.9 million came from Malaysia.

Singapore said its sand imports were commercial and that companies must follow the law of the source country; Global Witness found this inadequate, Climate Diplomacy reported.

A counterfactual model by Kumar et al. in Science Advances attributes 25 to 30% of Mekong delta bed lowering to sand mining; dams, groundwater and climate explain the rest.

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Indonesia reopened sea-sand exports in 2023 under regulation PP 26/2023.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Malaysia's earlier ban dates from 1997; Vietnam supplied 45% of Singapore's sand imports in 2008; Myanmar has sent more than 4 million cubic metres since 2011, with landslides and erosion reported in Tanintharyi.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Singapore's land area grew from 581.5 km2 in 1960 to 725.7 km2 in 2019, and UNEP counted about 517 million tonnes of sand imports over 20 years.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: between 2007 and 2015 Singapore recorded about 72.7 million tonnes of sand arriving from Cambodia, against 2.8 million tonnes of Cambodian exports; no source link is given.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: unregulated exports destroyed 26 sand islands in Riau, Indonesia, and the border island of Nipah was submerged in 2003; no source link is given.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Singapore applied a 2019 to 2022 moratorium and tight quota on sand imports; no source link is given.
    • None on record The sources reviewed do not say why Malaysia imposed the 2018 ban.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society✓ Researchers

    Press and investigations

    1. Malaysia bans sea sand exports to Singapore
      BusinessLive (Reuters) · 2019-07-03

    Researchers

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
    Terms used on this page

    Science and environment

    Groundwater
    Water held underground in soil and rock, drawn through wells.
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