Wildlife Dept concerned over no replacement for retiring staff

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) director Augustine Tuuga, has expressed his concern over the lack of intake of new staff to replace the retiring staff.

He said that about 60 percent of the staff presently were in their 50’s and that in five years, would be retiring from the service.

“They would be retiring and yet there has not been any new recruitment,” he said.

He added that it was imperative that new staff are brought in as personnel from the department are trained on the job.

“The new people would not know what to do (without guidance from their seniors),” he said.

He told reporters, attending a ceremony to welcome the Swift Wildlife Action Team (SWAT) from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation at his office yesterday, that he will requisition for new staff and provide the justification for it.

He also said, when briefing the group of visitors from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation who will be in Sabah between Oct 26 and Nov 2 to undergo training with SWD, that 70 percent of the work of his officers were involved in elephant control.

It was mentioned that the department was already short of people to address other looming issues, such as the illegal hunting of wildlife and the sale of the bush meat at the local tamus; and the growing threat on the use of the social media to conduct illegal buying and selling of wildlife in Sabah.

He said, his department is working with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to tackle the sales of wildlife from Sabah on the internet, which require very small effort on the part of the perpetrator(s) but cause wide ranging impact as their message can reach more people.

Augustine also highlighted that so far, SWD has had three of such cases and that they mostly involve locals who took to Facebook and WhatsApp to carry out their trade activities.

Among the wildlife that has been traded on the social media in Sabah and detected by SWD are a clouded leopard, and the most recent, bear paws.

“There have also been sales of bear liver on the internet,” he said.

Leading the SWAT team was the Sarawak Forestry Corporation’s general manager, Oswald Braken.