Activities Report Jan 2000 Newsletter

Estate Resorts To Cruel Traps For Wild Animals 
      The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) deplores the action of nearby oil-palm estates and orchards to prevent the encroachment of wild elephants by placing long, sharp nails and snares along their boundaries (NST, 22/12/99).
      Though the aim is to deter them, the estate owners and villagers should realize that these nails and snares may not only injure the target elephants, but other animals and humans as well. Seriously injured animals may pose a greater threat, and not being capable of hunting their normal prey, they may resort to killing humans and cattle instead.
      MNS feel that it is high time we realize that it is humans encroach on animal habitats, and not the opposite. The expansion and clearing of lands for agricultural and other uses had diminished wildlife habitats and disturbed their migratory patterns, and these animals had to resort to raiding villages and estates for their food needs.
      Perhaps the weakness is due to our past land use planning and management practices.  For example, in the conversion of forestland into agriculture, there should have been adequate buffers between agricultural plantations and forest edges, to minimize the two-way intrusions and encroachments of humans and animals. The buffers should not necessarily be natural forests; even degraded forests will do.
     The lack of buffers, coupled with our shrinking forests, could be the reason for the increased wild animal-human conflicts.  Also, we should not ignore the fact that under the integrated farming system, oil palm and rubber plantations are also rearing cattle, providing greater incentives for our carnivores to enter these plantations.
      It is too late to undo the past, but perhaps in the future, we should make provisions for buffers and animal corridors to allow for migration and improved gene mixing in our land development plans.  This win-win situation will be beneficial to both humans and our threatened biodiversity.
      Last and not least, MNS would like to commend the Wildlife Department for highlighting this, and suggest that the culprits be fined.  The penalty may not be much to our plantation companies, but an example should be shown to others to emphasize this serious matter.  In the meantime, keep up the monitoring work!
Dato’ Dr. Salleh Mohd Nor       Kuala Lumpur, December 24, 1999


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Created on 15th Jan 2000