KANITHA KRISHNASAMY

Director, TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia

REFLECTIONS

One can scroll through a Facebook or WhatsApp group, maybe watch a video and a few minutes later put in a purchase order for a baby orang utan. That is one of the simplest and easiest forms of illegal wildlife trade in today’s materialistic and digital media Malaysia. We live in a world where many

Malaysians want to, and think its okay to keep a diapered baby bear or gibbon in their apartment — all easily purchased at the tap of the fingers — never once sparing a thought about how that baby animal might have been stolen from its family in the wild. Never once thinking about the consequences of committing a crime.

Our last Sumatran rhino, Iman died last month in a captive facility. The symbol and pride of the nation, the Malayan Tiger, is at an all-time low of less than 200 individuals, compared to the 1000 individuals we thought we could secure a decade ago. A processing facility in Sabah was found with close to 30 tonnes of pangolin meat 10 months ago. Orang utans and elephants have been found either poisoned or with bullet wounds — one elephant alone had more than 70 gunshot wounds from a semiautomatic weapon fired at close range, its tusks removed. Both Malaysian and foreign hunters continue to trap, snare and shoot wildlife in our forests, in numbers that are mindboggling. Lesser profiled wildlife such as birds, deer, porcupines, turtles and tortoises, snakes, lizards, seahorses, sea cucumbers and a slew of others all continue to be poached and traded illegally in the hundreds and thousands, to feed a local demand but often also linked to cross-border smuggling. On transnational organised crime in the past decade, Malaysia has been implicated in the smuggling of about 40 tonnes of ivory and pangolin scales and whole animals, largely from the African continent.

A vast majority of perpetrators involved are still free. It all seems dire and depressing, and it is. But 2019 also turned out to be a year of hope.

Wildlife crime is now being taken seriously. Prosecutors and the judiciary are upping their game, with convicted poachers sentenced to unprecedented fines of up to RM1.5 million for wildlife offences. Our Prime Minister’s wife lent her voice to the Malayan Tiger campaign; RM1.4 million has been raised so far for anti-poaching and anti-trafficking efforts in Peninsular Malaysia. Governments and concerned citizens put out a bounty of RM30,000 to find an elephant poacher; the culprits were later found. The Royal Malaysian Police came onboard to fight wildlife crime, resulting in arrests and asset forfeiture. Anti-money laundering investigations were initiated on Malaysian ivory traders; firearms charges are being pursued.

These crimes are not “just a wildlife issue”. Firearms, machetes and other weapons, forests littered with snares and illegal poachers are all very real risks to national security. Hunters have caused fatal accidents to their hunting buddies, sometimes involving those in the uniform. Those moving containerised wildlife to and through Malaysia undermine our transportation and logistics sector while making a killing from their untaxed, illicit operations.

The death of Iman is a stark reminder that extinction is very real in our lifetime, not some distant and unforeseeable future. We need to demonstrate to the future generation that we did all we could to prevent other from the same fate. Our knowledge and understanding of these issues are more superior now compared to two decades ago, when the resources at hand were also not as advanced. The technologies, investigative capacities on forensics, digital crime and profiling is of 21st century calibre.

HOPES

As we approach 2020 and embark on a new decade, it’s time reflect and reboot. A positive momentum has been achieved and must be sustained. Our wildlife depend on it.