S’wak fine-tuning SOP on issuance of licences for crocodile culling

KUCHING: The state government is now finetuning the standard operating procedure (SOP) on the issuance of licences for crocodile culling, said permanent secretary to the Ministry of Resource Planning and Environment Datu Sudarsono Osman.

He said both the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) and state Forest Department will meet with Residents and district officers regarding the issue sometime next week.

“Then in the coming week, we will have community engagements with the local people who will be affected. Firstly, we need their feedback and secondly, we need to simplify the process for the issuance of licences and the fees involved,” Sudarsono told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

He reiterated that the government was aware of the increasing crocodile attacks and the menace they caused to the various riverine communities who have to face with the wild beasts on almost daily basis.

“We have been successful to down list our crocodiles from Appendix I to Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) so that we can do a systematic culling and not haphazardly,” he pointed out.

The down listing of wild crocodiles in Sarawak from Appendix I to Appendix II was achieved during the CITES conference in Johannesburg, South Africa last October.

The down listing meant that the state would be able to better manage crocodiles in the wild because prior to this, although the state has its own Wildlife Protection Act enacted in 1990 to protect the animals from getting extinct, under the Appendix I, Sarawak was not allowed to sell the products of culled animals especially their meat and skin to overseas markets as any international trade transaction is governed by CITES.

And as a signatory of CITES, the state, therefore, has to seek its approval in order to downgrade the present status.