Wildlife Dept says let down by constraints
Published on: Thursday, April 23, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Financial and manpower constraints remain the main challenges for the Wildlife Department in enforcing the law.Its Deputy Director Augustine Tuuga during his presentation at the Environmental Protection in Sabah and Sarawak – The Way Forward Workshop reminded participants about the incident where 30 elephants went on a rampage in Kg Bauto in Telupid last year."In one night, the herd caused massive damage on the smallholders' 200 hectares of oil palm trees as well as their fruit orchards. The herd is still there because it will cost the department RM30,000 per elephant to translocate them to the Tangkulap forest as planned.
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"Multiply that by 30, the number will quickly rise to more than a million ringgit and the department just does not have that resources," he said.He explained that the department used to kill problematic animals but following major reforms and growing awareness on the importance of conserving wildlife, the practise was effectively ended in 1996.However, frustrations have led to some unfortunate incidents where people would take matters into their own hands and killed the animals in retaliation for the damaged crops and Tuuga said because there is lack of evidence, it is very hard to bring the culprits to face the music.The other problem, said Tuuga is the rampant illegal hunting by both locals and foreigners.
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"Because we are short of manpower, it would take some time to issue licences to hunt. We do not ban hunting outright but you need licences. The problem with illegal hunting is, these people would shoot anything that moves."And because of that, we hear a lot of sad accidents. Brother shoots brother. Friend shoots friend. Because when you go in there illegally, you want to take everything. To make matters worse, when they go hunting, they don't do it for own consumption because now they can afford to bring out more than one hunt.
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"In the old days, you can only bring one because that was the capacity. Now they have 4WDs. They can pack as much as the vehicle can carry," he said.Some people, according to Tuuga, have the mentality that hunting should be a privilege for traditional reason, pointing out that things could turn ugly very fast if enforcement officers tried to reason with them.In Nabawan, he said, a group of about 50 natives trashed the department's vehicles by hurling stones and attacking the vehicles with machetes."There were only 15 of us, we were greatly outnumbered … they could turn very aggressive when they outnumber us," he said.Tuuga said while the department works closely with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) to stop the hunt for turtle eggs, unfortunately due to an existing law in the neighbouring country which allows islanders to collect 60 per cent of turtle eggs for their own consumption, many of these turtle eggs found their way to Sabah's shore, tarnishing the reputation of the State.He however consented that the eggs would not be sold here if there was not demand for them here.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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