Guest guest Posted September 2, 2002 Report Share Posted September 2, 2002 Need for tiger experts, studies Elizabeth John; Aniza Damis 09/01/2002 The New Straits Times 2* 01 (Copyright 2002) " IT'S a terrible thing, but Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat's call to shoot all the tigers is a good thing! " Coming from Datuk Dr Salleh Mohd Nor, the Malaysian Nature Society president, such a declaration is almost as startling as Nik Aziz's statement was shocking. But Salleh qualifies it. He says such a comment by a public figure had pushed the issue into the public domain. Indeed, in the two weeks since Nik Aziz's outrageous idea was splashed across the front page of every Malaysian daily (and made headlines on many nature websites), hardly a day goes by without some vitriolic letter roundly denouncing the statement as unconservationist and unenlightened. As unenlightened as the call to slaughter may have been, it only serves to highlight that prior to this, tigers in the peninsula have been trapped or shot with nary a fuss raised, except from some conservationists and NGOs. The tiger has been a protected species since the Protection of Wild-life Act 1972 was enacted, and a totally protected species since an amendment of the same Act in 1976. `Totally protected' means it cannot be shot, killed, taken or held in possession by any person (but exceptions apply). Despite the Government's assurance that it will not heed Nik Aziz's call to arms, the sight of tigers dead, tigers behind bars and stories of traps being set by the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) provides the disconcerting niggle that such a declaration is just political posturing. " If the tiger is a totally protected species, how can their very guardians be the ones to capture and kill them? " asked Salleh, referring to the exception in Section 53 of the Wildlife Act which states that wildlife officers may with good reason, kill or capture a totally protected animal if it is a danger to human life or property. " Surely there are other solutions - habitat and prey conservation, for instance. Has any study been done about these things? How many tiger experts are there? We have IT experts - is there a tiger expert in the country? And if none, what are we doing to train some? " If Perhilitan lacks the knowledge and information, Salleh felt it should start getting that information now. But, according to Perhilitan research director Sahir Othman, that is easier said than done. " We don't have enough people for that. To begin with, most people doing research are originally from management. And even then, of the 15 supposed to be doing research, only eight are available because the others were seconded to other departments in Perhilitan, " said Sahir. Besides the staff shortage, there is also the matter of insufficient funds. To get a comprehensive assessment of prey-base (the number of prey animals and species in a specific area) and tigers, a detailed study would need to be carried out involving camera-trapping equipment. Each camera unit costs at least RM2,000. In the World Wide Fund for Nature study of Felda Jerangau Barat, for instance, 18- 20 cameras were used for an area 170sq km for 10 months. Another study, by Kae Kawanishi from the University of Florida, at Taman Negara - the first scientific research on tiger and prey population in the country - came up with only 61 tiger pictures from the 4,500 taken in 10 months. " If we want to get a good picture of tigers, we will have to work 10 times as hard, " said Kawanishi, who spent three years on the study. In 1995, a Perhilitan estimate placed the tiger population in Peninsular Malaysia at 500. But a revision in 1997 put it at 600- 650 tigers. However, as no scientific study was conducted, the figures are guesswork at best. But what good would such studies do? Judging by the discussions at the Perhilitan Tiger Management Workshop in Kuala Terengganu last week, such studies could help answer how to manage the human-tiger conflict without either having to pay the ultimate price. The 40-plus participants from all over the peninsula who attended the workshop proved to be a passionate and caring lot. They are, indeed, well- intentioned - but quite lost. " Why can't we just move the tigers to another place? " asked one officer. The answer is that because tigers are very territorial, so releasing another tiger in the same place would start a fight, ending in the death of one. " So, why don't we move them to where there are no tigers? " asked another. Since no study has been done on tiger movements and locations, this cannot be done. Also, since there is no information of where there would be sufficient prey, it is also not feasible. " I don't understand: If we have agreed not to move the tigers from their natural environment, why are we capturing them and putting them in zoos? Isn't that moving them too? " puzzled yet another officer. " It's very difficult, " sighed Perhilitan Kelantan director Hassan Kassim. When we shoot the tiger, the NGOs and Press scold us. But when we don't shoot, the villagers scold us. They ask, `Which is more important? Humans or tigers?' " Rela and police personnel, who are also empowered to shoot tigers, also lack conservation awareness, Hassan felt. " In an emotionally charged atmosphere, with the villagers hysterical and baying for justice, how can we tell Rela and police `Don't shoot the tigers'? " Going by the experiences related by the rangers and officers, Perhilitan's job is to keep everyone satisfied. But because of this, they often get dirty looks from both sides as each has opposing needs. Perhaps what complicates matters more is that people know the department has powers to shoot tigers and, therefore, if it does not fulfil this expectation it is seen as tiger-hugging traitors of the human race. It is no wonder then that, in Perhilitan's eyes, trapping and shipping them off to zoos is the most humane solution. Even so, it is not an easy task. In very few of the tiger range States is there a Tiger Management Unit (UPH) with officers specially dedicated to the task of working on tiger issues alone. " Today we are the tiger people - we have to find the tiger's range, lug the trap into the jungle, catch the bait, mix the tranquilliser, shoot the dart, make sure the tiger isn't stolen by traffickers, then transport it to the zoo, " said Perhilitan Perak director Jasmi Abdul. " Tomorrow, we are the elephant people, the next day we are the hunting and poaching people, and on top of that we also have to do the paperwork! " he lamented, adding that this left Perhilitan officers with little time to do an in-depth study of tigers. Where the villagers were uncooperative, the four or five rangers and officers would have to carry the metal traps, measuring 7ft by 35in by 4ft into the jungle, while all the time looking out for tigers. Even the bait would have to be procured by the officers. If the villagers are uncooperative, the officers have to find some animal to use as bait and feed it. In one incident where the villagers were unhappy with Perhilitan, they did not feed the bait and it died. So few officers have trapping and drug-shooting knowledge that even these seemingly simple shortterm solutions are beyond their grasp. In most of the tiger problem areas, Jasmi said, there are no traps available so they often have to be carted from one place to another until they fall apart. Even where there are traps, not all the officers know how to use it. The same could be said for tranquilliser darts. Not only do most areas not have them, there are also few officers trained to use them. Thus, untrained officers often have to mix the drug dose themselves. This is very dangerous as an overdose could kill the tiger and an underdose could kill the officers. Whenever there is an attempt to capture a tiger alive with tranquillisers, there will be four officers with live ammunition standing by to protect the officer with the tranquilliser gun should the tiger fail to go down. In an incident in Terengganu, ranger Adnan Ismail had his right hand gnawed by a tiger which had not been effectively drugged. In order to save him, the tiger had to be sacrificed. Because of the lack of such specialised knowledge, Perhilitan officers say that when there is a complaint of tiger activity in an area, all they are often able to do is patrol the area for a few hours or days. But since this does not solve the problem, the villagers lose confidence in Perhilitan and take matters into their own hands. At the last such workshop in 1999, a proposal for the setting up of a tiger management unit in every tiger range State or district was made but, said Perhilitan research officer Wan Shaharuddin Wan Noordin, the idea was never taken up. Another frustration felt by Perhilitan is the lack of cooperation from the Forestry Department, which oversees the regulation of forest reserves and forested areas - the natural habitats of the tiger outside of protected areas that are the jurisdiction of Perhilitan. Often, Perhilitan Terengganu director Ahmad Samsuddin Shaari said, when forest reserves were going to be opened up, Perhilitan was not consulted. " The problem with working with Forestry is that because it is under the Primary Industries Ministry, its interest is to make a profit, but Perhilitan's interest is to conserve animals! " Another area of difficulty is law enforcement. One of the biggest loopholes that allows for the killing of tigers is in Sections 55 and 56 of the Wildlife Act which allows for the shooting and killing of a tiger if it is deemed a threat to life or property. Although there are many steps before this final measure may be taken, Abdul Jalal Kassim of the Perhilitan legal and enforcement division said that often, it is very difficult to prove, without witnesses, that a person had shot a tiger with-out just cause. And, as with other Perhilitan divisions, enforcement officers are not sufficiently trained to gather evidence to convict. To date, no one has been charged with killing a tiger. At the trafficking stage, Abdul Jalal said that even though the division had been successful in bringing many cases to court, often the penalties were so low that they were neither a punishment nor a deterrent. " The average fine for possession of tiger parts can be as low as RM300, and this is also given to third-time offenders! " Abdul Jalal said in frustration. He felt that there was little sense in having efficient enforcement if, at the court level, judges were themselves not conservation aware, and therefore did not give severe penalties. Penalties often came with an either-or: a fine or a jail sentence - but rarely are the two awarded together. What is generally felt among Perhilitan officers is that there is a need to amend the Act to plug up loopholes, strictly enforce hunting licences, and even, as Pahang director Zainuddin Shukur suggested, to revoke the Orang Asli's right to hunt protected species. " These days, very few Orang Asli depend on hunting as the sole means of survival. They are landowners of many thousands of acres! " Zainuddin said. In 1952, A. Locke, a British administrator in south Terengganu, wrote the book The Tigers of Trengganu - an observation of tigers during the three years that he hunted rogue tigers as part of his administrative duties. Though not even a wildlife expert, his book has, in the last 50 years, become the definitive study on tigers in Malaysia. Indeed, whichever Perhilitan office the NST Special Reports team went to, the book always got good recommendation. What is curious though is that since that time, no effort has been made to match Locke's effort at a study of tigers. Considering we have far more people and resources and wealth than Locke, it seems impossible that we cannot match, if not better, his study. If we are as committed to the conservation of the tiger as all our public anti-Nik Aziz statement breast-beating seems to indicate, and unless we want an extinct creature on our Federal crest, we would do something to resolve the human-tiger conflict - and do it now. As we celebrate 45 years of independence, perhaps we should move beyond thoughts of our own liberty and ensure that tigers can live free, too. Salleh: Public domain.; Sahir: Lack of experts.; Ahmad Samsuddin: Conserve. Folder Name: Asia Conservation Tiger Relevance Score on Scale of 100: 98 ____________________ To review or revise your folder, visit http://www.djinteractive.com or contact Dow Jones Customer Service by e-mail at custom.news or by phone at 800-369-7466. (Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 609-452-1511 or contact your local sales representative.) ____________________ Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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