Malaysia: Revamp of jumbo plan on the cards

Muguntan Vanar The Star 1 Feb 13;

KOTA KINABALU: A revamp of Sabah's elephant action plan is on the cards after the death toll of the state's worst conservation tragedy climbed to 14 with the discovery of another dead Borneo pygmy elephant in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve yesterday.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the state government would re-look its conservation efforts and strengthen its elephant action plan to ensure that a similar tragedy “never reoccurs”.

“We just cannot have this repeating itself. We have to overcome any weaknesses and tackle the shortcomings,” he said.

Since Dec 29, wildlife rangers have recovered 14 dead elephants at the state-owned Yayasan Sabah's Forest Management Unit 23 (FMU) in the Gunung Rara area.

The FMU area involves various companies undertaking oil palm plantations, industrial timber planting and logging and most of the dead elephants, including the latest body, were found within a 10km radius.

Sabah Wildlife investigators, together with police, are trying to find the source of poisoning - widely speculated to be large doses of pesticides. Natural toxins have also not been ruled out. Police are also scouring for any criminal element over the incident.

So far, the actual source of poisoning has not been identified while wildlife officials are still waiting for the chemist's report.

The Malaysian Nature Society has called for steps to be taken to ensure that human-wildlife conflict is managed properly.

“MNS acknowledges that elephants can sometimes roam into villages and plantations, but proper measures should be taken to relocate these animals into other forest reserves instead of poisoning them.

“We hope that the local authorities will act swiftly to ensure endangered animals are not in jeopardy due to the lack of enforcement,” its president Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed said.

Danau Girang Field Centre director Dr Benoit Goossens, an expert on the subject, said it was necessary to study the roaming patterns of the elephants and either take appropriate action to allow them to move safely or translocate them.

Another Pygmy elephant found dead
Roy Goh New Straits Times 1 Feb 13;

SENSELESS ACT: Authorities urge people to be more vigilant against cruelty to wildlife as death toll rises to 14

KOTA KINABALU: THE heartwrenching deaths of Bornean Pygmy Elephants caused by poisoning has prompted authorities here to plead with the people to be more vigilant against cruel acts inflicted on wildlife.

The death count of the elephants is now 14, with the latest carcass found near the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve in Tawau on Wednesday night.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun described the discovery of yet another dead elephant "a nightmare".

He said while the authorities were trying their best to preserve and protect elephants, there were those who saw things differently.

"Enforcement of the law is important but it is equally incumbent for people in the state to consider the wildlife as their own.

"With such mindset and with the law to punish the wrongdoers, our wildlife would have a better chance of surviving," he said.

Masidi said the authorities were serious in nabbing those responsible for killing the elephants and a senior police officer in Tawau had also been roped in to help track the culprits.

A special task force has been formed to investigate the deaths and are currently tracking the route of the herd that died, apperently by poisoning.

Only a 3-month-old baby elephant, now named Joe, was found alive next to its dead mother which was among those that died.

It is now kept under round-the-clock supervision at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park here.

Meanwhile World Wildlife Fund-Malaysia executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma suggested that the central forest landscape in Sabah needs to be protected from being converted into plantations.

"All conversion approvals need to be reviewed by the Sabah Forestry Department and assessed not purely from commercial but the endangered species and landscape ecology perspectives," Dionysius said.

He said conversions result in fragmentation of the forests, which in turn results in loss of natural habitat for elephant herds, thus forcing them to find alternative food and space, putting humans and wildlife in direct conflict.

To prevent such conflicts, he said frequent and large scale patrolling was critical. However, he admitted that it was no easy task for the Sabah Wildlife Department to be everywhere as the area that needed patrolling was too vast.

"More resources, including manpower, hardware and finances, should be allocated for the Department. The existing honorary wildlife warden programme of the department is doing well and should be expanded."

'No more jumbo carcasses'
Kristy Inus and Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 2 Feb 13;

TRAGIC: However, likelihood of more Pygmy Elephant deaths not ruled out

KOTA KINABALU: EVEN though no more carcasses of Bornean Pygmy Elephants have been found in Tawau since Wednesday night, the special task force investigating the issue has not ruled out the possibility of more deaths.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said there could be more deaths if the motive behind the poisoning of the animals was "pest control".

He said members of the taskforce were currently combing a 10 sq km area where they estimate the particular elephant group had frequented.

"So far, in the last two days, we have not seen anything more. But if this (poisoning of elephants) is an act of pest control, (we are) more likely to see more bodies. However, this is something we have yet to confirm," he said yesterday.

Ten dead elephants were discovered near the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, which sits between the Danum Valley and Maliau Basin Conservation areas from Dec 29 to Jan 25. In the next few days, four more were found.

Located 130km from Tawau, the forest reserve is also within the Yayasan Sabah Forest Management Unit concession area.

Laurentius reminded people not to speculate on what happened before the result of investigations are known.

On a report by a local daily quoting non-governmental organisation Borneo Rhino Alliance that the elephants may have ingested poison by mistake, he said: "Let's wait for the results. It is not fair (for other parties) to speculate as the last time I only confirmed it as symptoms of poisoning."

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, meanwhile, gave his assurance that the country was committed towards protecting its forests and wildlife.

The Sabah government in particular, he said, has done its part in ensuring biodiversity was kept intact.

Besides the nation's pledge to maintain over 50 per cent of land under forest cover, the plantation sector also relied on increasing yield through productivity instead of clearing more lands.

"I think all of us are very sad in light of the Pygmy Elephants' deaths as they are part and parcel of the Sabah scenery.

"The palm oil industry in particular have vested interests in seeing nothing untoward happens to forests in the country, because it gives all plantation players a good image, which we would like to promote in this industry," Dompok said after a Chinese New Year walkabout in Donggongon town.

He said plantation owners here had also set aside areas for wildlife corridors, as part of their efforts to reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said they would investigate the matter together with the Forestry Department.

He said investigation papers had been opened under section 429 of the Penal Code.

Yayasan Sabah Group, in a statement, said it would cooperate with relevant departments in investigating the cause of death of the elephants at its concession area.

Its director Tan Sri Datu Khalil Datu Jamalul said the group, which is part of the special task force, would also work with relevant agencies to come up with corrective actions to avoid similar incidents in future.

Sabah offers RM40,000 reward
Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 6 Feb 13;

MYSTERY: Payment to informers if report confirms 14 Borneo pygmy elephants were poisoned

KOTA KINABALU: IF the chemist's report indicates that the 14 Borneo pygmy elephants were poisoned, the state government will offer a RM40,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said yesterday the chemist's report would be ready on Friday.

At a task force meeting on Monday, he was told that two senior police officers from Kinabatangan had been assigned to investigate the matter.

"The Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (Matta) has offered RM10,000 and they (task force) have asked the ministry to top it up.

"I found that there is a provision for this in the Wildlife Enactment and I agreed to top it up with another RM40,000. So the potential reward is RM50,000."

All eyes have been on Sabah since news of the death of 14 elephants near the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, 130km from Tawau, was published.

The Sabah Wildlife and Natural Parks Department believes that the endangered mammals were poisoned. It submitted samples to the Chemistry Department last week.

"Once the chemist's report is ready and if it shows conclusively that someone poisoned the elephants, we will start sending flyers to let people know about the reward.

"We are not saying that the elephants were poisoned. We are saying if the chemist's report confirms it, we will start looking for the culprits."

Cops locate logging firms over deaths of pygmy elephants
New Straits Times 7 Feb 13;

KOTA KINABALU: Police have identified logging companies carrying out work at the site where 14 Borneo pygmy elephants died mysteriously in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, 140km from Tawau, recently.

State police commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said there were logging companies with 300 workers at the location.

"The Criminal Investigation Department is completing the investigation. We know that the place is remote but we also know which companies are working there," he said at the police headquarters, here, yesterday.

He added that police did not discount the possibility that the elephants were poisoned as the dead animals were found with their ruptured stomachs .

"We have to wait for the chemist's report to establish if it was poisoning.

"Only then will we continue our investigation."

On Tuesday, state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said RM40,000 would be offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the deaths of the elephants. Bernama

Police: Pygmy elephants in Sabah were killed
Stephanie Lee The Star 7 Feb 13;

KOTA KINABALU: The 14 pygmy elephants found dead at a forest reserve near Tawau last month were killed, police said.

The criminal investigation department is completing its investigations under Section 429 of the Penal Code for mischief towards animals, which carries a maximum five years' jail upon conviction.

“Investigations indicated that the elephants were killed as autopsies found their intestinal tracts ruptured and there were other internal injuries,” said Sabah Commissioner of Police Datuk Hamza Taib.

He said that police had moved their investigations to several logging companies around the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, about 139km from Tawau.

However, he could not confirm if the elephants' deaths were caused by poisoning.

“We are still waiting for the chemist's report,” he said.

Comm Hamza said they had identified some of the logging companies, which had about 300 workers at the forest reserve.

Meanwhile, an additional reward of RM40,000 is being offered for information leading to the capture of those responsible for killing the animals.

A three-week-old male calf is the sole survivor of the massacre and is recuperating at the Lok Kawi zoo.

Apart from the police, the state Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry and Yayasan Sabah are also investigating the case.

The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) had offered RM10,000 in reward and the state government has now offered RM40,000 more for any information leading to the arrest of those responsible.

“It is not the reward that matters. What's more important is the result of the case,” Comm Hamza said.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said he had been briefed on the matter by his permanent secretary Datuk Micheal Emban, who chaired the meeting of the task force on the dead elephants.

“If the chemist's report shows that there was intentional killing of the elephants, the ministry is ready to offer a reward of RM40,000 to the informant,” he said after launching the Malindo Air service for the Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur route here yesterday.

“So with Matta's offer, this brings the reward to RM50,000,” he said.

Move to send forensics samples overseas lauded
Kristy Inus New Straits Times 12 Feb 13;

INCONCLUSIVE RESULTS: NGOs urge for solution to human-wildlife conflict

KOTA KINABALU: HUTAN, a Sabah-based wildlife research and conservation non-governmental organisation (NGO), has supported the government's move to find out the cause of the deaths of 14 elephants in Tawau recently.

The government has sent samples to two specialised centres overseas for analysis.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun on Friday announced in Ranau that a second opinion was being sought from experts as preliminary test reports here were inconclusive.

Masidi had instructed the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) to send samples from the carcasses to the Ramathibodi Poison Centre at Mahidol University, Thailand, and Queensland Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Department in Australia.

Hutan co-director Dr Marc Ancrenaz, a wildlife veterinarian, said it was disappointing that after two weeks, the results were inconclusive.

"We still do not know for sure what killed the 14 elephants and left a baby orphaned. Sending the samples for verification overseas and having it double checked by other independent bodies is the best step at this time."

Ten dead elephants were discovered near the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, which sits between the Danum Valley and Maliau Basin Conservation areas, from Dec 29 to Jan 25. In the next few days, four more were found.

Acrenaz said since the NGO started working in Sabah 15 years ago, there had been a rise in human-elephant conflict resulting from the rapid reduction of elephant habitat, especially in agro-industrial landscapes.

"We are aware that agricultural development is an important source of revenue for the state, but what is needed now is to implement a sound land use solution to reduce such conflicts."

He, however, praised SWD's commitment in addressing the issue with other partners as well as releasing a multi-stakeholder five-year State Action Plan last year that contained effective recommendations to reduce human-elephant conflict.

Masidi said yesterday that he had conveyed the need for future solutions to the special task force investigating the current case.

"I told them to come up with a better framework policy to overcome this problem and reduce human-wildlife conflict," said Masidi.

On the samples, he said he received the report on Friday and gave the order to send out the samples to the overseas experts that same day.

Masidi said the move to have the samples tested overseas should not be viewed as a lack of confidence in local experts, but an indication of the government's commitment in getting to the bottom of the tragedy.

The findings would be compared with the results here and help eliminate any doubt or suspicions on its accuracy.