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