WWF 3 Jun 09;
Friday was a black day in Malaysia’s fight to save her wild tigers.
While the seizure of five tiger skins from smugglers near the Malaysia-Thailand border is testament to greater enforcement, the find has also delivered a grievous blow to Malaysia’s dwindling population of wild tigers.
With five confiscated skins in this one seizure, the official annual figure of tiger poaching has jumped by 500%, and this does not include the seizure of four tiger carcasses in northern Thailand earlier this year, which were believed to have been smuggled out of Malaysia.
The vigilance of the Anti-Smuggling Unit officers prevented the smugglers from slipping their illicit haul of skins through the Malaysian-Thailand border and into the illegal trade in tigers and their parts.
Though the skins did not reach the end buyer in this instance, these tigers are lost forever to our forests and the rest of the tigers’ parts; their meat, bones and skulls - may have found their way into those buyers’ hands by now.
The enforcement agencies may have won this battle but the war is still being won by smugglers seeking to strip our forests of wildlife, for profit.
Simply put, there are more smugglers than enforcement agents and they are taking full advantage of this situation.
Law enforcers sorely need more financial support, particularly for on-the-ground patrolling, in and around protected areas, and there must be greater co-ordination between the Police, Customs, Anti-Smuggling Unit and Wildlife Department each of whom are doing good work, but individually.
And when wildlife poachers and traders are caught, they should know that they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, especially in this case where one poacher tried to pass himself off as a Thai policeman.
As it stands, taking a tiger or any part of a tiger is an offence under the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972. This allows for a maximum fine of RM15,000, a jail term of up to five years or both – paltry compared to the fortune awaiting the smuggler when his illegal haul is finally sold.
MYCAT is aware that this law is being amended and that other more stringent regulations are being finalized but this process must be hastened; so too must the implementation of the National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, which aims to have 1,000 wild tigers thriving in our forests by 2010.
With five dead tigers being found in this one seizure, the need for speed has never been greater.
MYCAT appeals to the Wildlife and National Parks Department to investigate the origin of these tigers. The seemingly undamaged skins–clear of snare marks and bullet holes – raises many troubling questions about how some smugglers now operate.
MYCAT also appeals to the Judiciary to impose the maximum sentence to illustrate to the World that Malaysia is doing all she can to protect tigers in the wild.
Saving the Malayan tiger is not only the responsibility of the authorities and a handful of NGOs under the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers.
We urgently need support from the public. If you have any information regarding poaching or smuggling of endangered wildlife, please notify the Wildlife and National Parks Department or sms the 24-hour Wildlife Crime Hotline at 019-356-4194.
The line is managed by the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT), which relays the information to relevant authorities and always respects the anonymity of callers.
If this tragic loss teaches us anything, it is that inaction and complacency are no longer viable options.
We are risking emptying forests of tigers to the extent that in the future the only places where Malaysians will be able to see their national animal will be in a zoo or on the Country’s crest.
Malaysian Nature Society
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia
Wildlife Conservation Society
WWF-Malaysia
