MALAYSIA: Stop Wildlife Trafficking Sahabat Alam Malaysia Says

All Malaysians must work together to stop wildlife trafficking once and for all. If we don't act decisively, many of the country's most beloved and iconic species are doomed to die out.

That is the message of one of Malaysia's best-known environmentalist groups, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM). "If illegal wildlife trade is not curbed, then Malaysia’s 26 endangered animals (including the Malayan tiger, common otter and 11 species of bats) will go extinct," the group, which was set up in 1977 with the aim of championing environmental justice, stresses in a statement. "Other animals in the ‘vulnerable,’ ‘near threatened’ and ‘of least concern’ categories are not safe either as poaching, illegal wildlife trade, possession of endangered species, and the consumption of animal parts as exotic food are decimating their population," SAM adds.

The nonprofit has issued its renewed call for more comprehensive action against wildlife trafficking in the wake of a new UN report that identifies Malaysia as a global hub of the illegal trade. Endangered and protected animals – be they mammals, birds, reptiles, or marine creatures – are equally at constant risk from poaching and trafficking.

Meanwhile, Malaysia continues to serve as a regional transit hub for wildlife trafficking, a highly lucrative business accounting for billions upon billions of dollars in overall revenues worldwide annually. The country's officials can often do little more than fight rearguard action against the well-funded and resourceful criminal syndicates that are behind much of the trade. "Enforcement efforts should also match with the level of growing involvement of sophisticated, well-funded and increasingly armed criminal organisations in the illegal wildlife trade," SAM notes.

Hampering those enforcement efforts, however, is the unrelenting demand for the parts of exotic animals that are highly sought internationally as ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. "Such fallacious beliefs," as SAM puts it, in the medicinal properties of rhino horns and tiger bones have encouraged poachers to hunt endangered animals into near-extinction levels in Malaysia.

To stop rampant poaching and trafficking, the group recommends increased online surveillance of social media sites to monitor the activities of traffickers who are increasingly taking to platforms like Facebook to reach a larger clientele with ease across Malaysia and farther afield. The group also wants to see a comprehensive hunting ban enacted to protect all endangered species in Malaysia's forests. "Don’t just ban the hunting of sambar deer. Stop issuing hunting permits for all wildlife,” stressed Mohamed Idris, the group's president.

He has also called for harsher penalties for wildlife trafficking to serve as deterrents, in tandem with stepped-up educational programs in local communities to continue raising awareness of the need for wildlife conservation. "The tame enforcement efforts point to a lack of political will among those responsible at national and international levels for protecting wildlife species," Idris said. “Strong deterrent measures such as heavy fines and longer jail terms must be imposed and enforced stringently.”

Sale Of Bushmeat In Sabah

Locals in Nabawan sell bushmeat on the side of the road

Many locals in Sabah seem to view the state's forests as their own backyards: the animals that inhabit those woods, these people apparently believe, are simply there for the taking – through the barrels of hunting rifles.

Reportedly, the bushmeat trade in the state continues to flourish despite a ban on game hunting. A citizen's group that goes by the name of the Wildlife Watchers of Sabah has documented several examples of bushmeat on sale at roadside farmers' markets in the district of Nabawan in recent weeks. Wild boars, barking deer, civet cats, pangolins – game hunters, if given a chance, will kill them all indiscriminately for their meat.

In response, officials at the Sabah Wildlife Department have reiterated their pledge to clamp down on game hunters. “We are going after the suppliers of bushmeat and we think this is the best approach in dealing with this problem,” said Augustine Tuuga, the department's chief of enforcement.

According to the Wildlife Watchers of Sabah, however, there has so far been little sign of a crackdown by officials on the sale of bushmeat, despite the Wildlife Department's promises to the contrary.

Complicating enforcement measures is the fact that not only is there great demand for bushmeat among locals, but that many of them do not consider game hunting to be wrong at all. There is also a risk, Augustine noted, that some of the bushmeat sellers might turn on wildlife officials or others if they are challenged over their possession of bushmeat.

They did just that last November, when a licensed hunter reported that he had been threatened by local bushmeat sellers for trying to take pictures of their fare in Nabawan. The meat being sold illegally at the time, he said, came from several protected species: sambar deer, barking deer, bearded pig, pangolin and porcupine.

"One of them pointed his finger at me and shouted: 'Jangan kau ambi gambar kami di sini. Kalu tidak kami pukul kau!' (Don't take our photos here, or we will hurt you)," the man recalled in a media report at the time. "I sensed something was wrong when 12-15 men started to gather around us," he added. "I quietly walked away. The last words that came out of his mouth was 'If I meet you in the jungle, I will kill you!'"

William Baya, director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, acknowledged the problem posed by some locals. "We are having problems with these people," he explained. "They are not cooperative and, worse, they don't recognise our laws. They claimed that hunting is part of their culture."

Be that as it may, their wanton disregard of wildlife protection laws cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. If it is, many endangered species in Sabah's forests will be driven ever closer to the brink of extinction.