Malaysia - Wanted: Guardians of the forest

New Straits Times 28 Oct 12;

MONITORS: A volunteer corps similar to Askar Wataniah and the police volunteer corps should be introduced to curb illegal logging and poaching in the peninsula, write Arman Ahmad and Tan Choe Choe

THE introduction of a voluntary force of forest rangers will help battle illegal logging and reduce poaching in forests.

As such, the Forestry Department is seriously considering the idea as the lack of manpower for enforcement activities is one of its biggest problems in conservation efforts.

Director-general of Forestry Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim told the New Sunday Times that out of a 6,000 strong workforce in his department, only a small percentage of staff were foresters and rangers.

It is learnt that only 218 officers throughout the peninsula are tasked with enforcement. There are almost six million hectares of forests in the peninsula. While not all of it is forest reserve, there is still a huge area to be covered by these officers.

Rahman welcomed suggestions to recruit volunteers among the public to help save our forests.

"It is good to get the people involved," he said, adding that the Forestry Department could train these volunteers to become forest rangers.

"There is no money to pay them, but we are willing to send them to school," he said.

Rahman was responding to a suggestion by a New Sunday Times reader that agencies entrusted to take care of our forests and wildlife should join forces and set up a volunteer corps of forest rangers (similar to the volunteers in the army and police force) to better protect the forest and wildlife reserves in the country.

He added that those willing to serve could undergo two years of training for the "pengawas hutan" certificate or undergo a one-year forest ranger programme.

The training is conducted at the Forestry Training Institute in Kepong.

"They can become the eyes and ears of the department in 32 forest districts in the country," he said.

Rahman added that with a starting salary of RM800 a month, not many chose forestry as a career as they could get more lucrative salaries elsewhere.

The idea to have volunteer forest rangers was welcomed by several non-governmental organisations.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) field researcher Meor Razak Meor Rahman said it was a good way to handle issues of illegal logging and encroachment into forest reserves.

"Right now, the role of voluntary observer is being fulfilled by certain NGOs and even individuals. Recently, Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-Malaysia) created a group called Voluntary Forest Monitors (TIM-VFM).

"This group consists of the staff and volunteers of NGOs, communities and individuals interested in forestry issues as well as people with a background in forestry," he said.

However, Meor Razak said if the proposed voluntary corps is to be well received by the public, the implementers must identify legal issues which need to be overcome.

Citing an example, he said forest reserves are restricted areas under current laws (Akta Perhutanan Negara 1984), therefore, civilians are not allowed to enter the areas unless they obtain a permit.

Usually, illegal logging and encroachment into forested areas occur deep in forest reserves and this makes it difficult for the public to know or even be aware of such activities.

If this voluntary corps is created, registered volunteers should be given powers just like forestry officers because permits to forest reserves are specific to particular forests.

Kanitha Krishnasamy, the senior programme officer at TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, revealed that her organisation had actually broached the subject of volunteers several times to the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) over the years.

"There is an example of how this works too. You can see it in the Honorary Wildlife Wardens in Sabah, who are empowered to patrol the forests.

"In Sarawak, there are the Honorary Wildlife Rangers. They (Perhilitan) don't seem too keen, maybe because they are worried about the potential for abuse such as who would come on board to participate in such activities."

But in all fairness, Kanitha felt that the issue hasn't been brought out in the open and exhaustively discussed to see how it can or cannot work in the peninsula.

A senior Wildlife Department official agreed that there should be more public participation to be the eyes and ears of the authorities.

In Taman Negara -- a place that is about three times the size of Singapore -- Perhilitan can only afford to send 30 rangers to patrol the area. Manpower and resources are severely lacking.

"If the public want to know more on how they can help us, we can even provide them with crash training on what to look out for. They can contact us on our hotline or even email us. Sometimes, the public can give us really good information," he added.

Reader P. Kesavan from Taiping who mooted the idea for a voluntary corps wrote that the lack of resources made it impossible for Perhilitan to effectively safeguard these areas from poaching and other unlawful activities due to the relatively low priority given to proper management of natural resources compared with other developed countries.

He said these volunteers could be funded by the private sector (especially the plantation and timber industries) as part of their corporate social responsibility.

"Apart from preventing illegal activities, these volunteers can also help detect the sale of bush meat," he wrote.

1,165 wardens, rangers show it works in Sabah, Sarawak
New Straits Times 28 Oct 12;

THERE are 565 appointed wildlife wardens in Sabah.

Completely voluntary, with no salaries drawn from the government whatsoever, these volunteers choose to spend their time working to help protect wildlife in the state.

The Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 empowers the Sabah Wildlife Director to appoint suitable candidates to be Honorary Wildlife Wardens (HWW).

The Enactment also allows the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) to train these wardens, who have the power to enforce local wildlife laws.

Their background is diverse. Some are staff of wildlife-related NGOs, staff of the Forest Management Unit, staff of oil palm plantations or nature tour guides, who are already on the payroll of their respective employers.

Once potential HWW candidates have been vetted, they are given wildlife law and basic investigation training -- in class and on the field. The training lasts for three days and candidates have to sit for a written test at the end of it. Only those who pass the test will be appointed as HWW.

But the success of the programme is apparent.

"In areas where there are HWWs, wildlife poaching is under control or has been minimised. These areas are mostly in or near protected areas," said Augustine Tuuga, Sabah Wildlife Department deputy director.

He gave some examples of how the HWWs have helped his department increase its enforcement capacity:

In one case, Sabah Foundation staff who were appointed as HWWs apprehended poachers who were hunting the endangered Sambar Deer near the Danum Valley Conservation Area, and handed them over to the Sabah Wildlife Department for further action.

In another area, HWWs in the Sabamas Plantation, which borders the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, constantly patrol their area to prevent poachers from entering their plantation or gaining entry into the neighbouring wildlife reserve through their plantation.

They have handed over several poaching cases to the Wildlife Department for further action, one of which (for hunting wild boar) had been brought to court. This also reduced incidence of poaching in their area.

Meanwhile, WWF-Malaysia's HWWs in Kinabatangan are working with Wildlife Department staff in enforcement patrolling in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. This has increased the capacity of the department to protect the sanctuary.

The presence of HWWs has really helped ease the department's severe staffing problem, said Augustine.

For instance, he said, HWWs employed by the Langkayan Island Dive Resort are now helping to protect the Sugut Island Marine Conservation Area and although no enforcement staff from the Wildlife Department are present, the protected area is fully secured from encroachment.

Asked about the possibility of poachers infiltrating the ranks of the HWWs, he said there has been no such issue so far.

Instead, the biggest challenge the department faces with the HWW programme is perhaps in coping with the many training requests they get from various parties.

"It may appear as if we are not interested to have the programme, but the fact is we are fully occupied as we have other tasks to carry out as well. Again, it's a staffing problem. In this case, we do not have enough trainers."

In Sarawak, there are more than 600 appointed Honorary Wildlife Rangers (HWR). They have existed since the 1990s, and most of them are community leaders.

"However, their task is not enforcement, but more towards creating awareness," said Sarawak Forestry Department's head of protected area biodiversity conservation division, Oswald Braken Tisen.

"They work as individuals, or in groups to promote conservation of wildlife, forests as well as the environment. They also function as our eyes and ears. If they find any irregularity, they will report it. We find this as an effective way to work with the community and to get them involved," he said.

The Sarawak HWR's functions and duties are specified in rule 31 of the Wild Life Protection Rules, 1998.

It states that "... an Honorary Wild Life Ranger shall exercise such functions and duties as may be assigned to him by a Chief Wild Life Warden including to report any contravention of the provisions of the Ordinance and its Rules to any Wild Life Officer or the police, to educate the local community on the relevant laws and issues relating to wild life protection and conservation, to inform any Wild Life Officer on local wild life issues and problems as well as to assist Wild Life officers in the discharge of their duties".

Wildlife volunteers from NGOs
New Straits Times 28 Oct 12;

THERE are programmes in Sabah and Sarawak where the public can become forest reserve or wildlife protection volunteers, but none have been organised in the peninsula.

Some NGOs have set up their own voluntary programmes such as the initiative of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT).

It's Citizen Action for Tigers (CAT) programme was introduced in September 2010 to enable Malaysians to help the authorities curb crimes involving wildlife - although the emphasis appears to be on tigers, but it is not exclusive to them - in the Sungai Yu Tiger Corridor, some 15km south of the entrance to Taman Negara in Sungai Relau, Pahang.

The group recognises that the forests around Sungai Yu provide easy access to the interior and are vulnerable to poachers as anyone can go into the area without a permit.

CAT enables concerned members of the public to do their part for wildlife, in that volunteer naturalists take part in CAT Walks to appreciate nature, picnic or swim in the forested areas and when they're there, "deter poaching by their mere presence" and provide "additional watchful eyes at poaching hot spots on weekends", MYCAT explained on its website.

If suspicious activities are found, they could contact the 24-hour MYCAT Wildlife Crime Hotline which channels them to the relevant authorities.

Managed by the MYCAT Secretariat's Office, it also goes one step further to follow up on the outcome of the reports and updates its database with information on the action taken.

From 21 reports received in 2008, the hotline recorded about 106 reports in 2011 and most of the cases were acted on by the authorities.