Isabelle Lai The Star 31 Jan 11;
PETALING JAYA: WWF Malaysia is taking the religious route in its tiger conservation programme.
For starters, it has met several local imam in Gerik, Perak, to help them draft Friday sermons to address the issue because it found that most poachers and traders were Malays.
It also plans to have a campaign targeting consumers, who are mostly Chinese who value tiger parts for food and traditional medicine.
WWF Malaysia senior communications officer Sara Sukor said the first Friday sermon on tiger conservation was read out in Gerik last year.
Sara said a survey done in Terengganu in 2008, after a similar sermon was made on turtle conservation and egg consumption, showed encouraging results in that many had changed perceptions about the issue.
“It is an Islamic way of life not to abuse animals.
“Setting up snares to capture these animals constitutes animal abuse,” she said.
She added, however, many did not think that poaching and illegal wildlife trade had anything to do with Islamic teachings.
She said many seizures of wildlife parts had been made along the Gerik-Jeli highway, near the Thai border, since 2008.
“Poaching is a very serious issue in Gerik as the Belum-Temengor forest complex is located in Perak and is home to a huge variety of wildlife species,” she said.
Sara said last year, which was the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar, was a good year for tiger conservation efforts with increased public awareness and concerns.
She lauded the Government for passing the Wildlife Conservation Act, which came into effect last December.
She also said that there had been many wildlife-related cases that were brought to public attention, including the high-profile Anson Wong case.
“The increased public awareness will help our ongoing efforts this year as we continue with our outreach programmes with Mycat,” she said, referring to the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers involving WWF Malaysia, the Malaysian Nature Society, Traffic South-East Asia and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Malaysia was one of the 13 tiger-range countries that took part in the Tiger Summit last year and signed a declaration to double the number of tigers in their respective countries by 2022.
