(MY) Malaysia to support tiger habitat

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Malaysia has the space to support king of the jungle - New Straits Times*22

Jul 2006*

By Nisha Sabayanayagam <nisha

 

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*KUALA LUMPUR: An international study of tiger habitats has identified

Malaysia as a place that can support a tiger population. The million-ringgit

question is whether the country can live up to this potential.

*

The study says Malaysia has been selected as one of 15 " tiger conservation

landscapes " (TCL) in Southeast Asia out of 76 worldwide.

 

TCLs are defined as places that have the best chance of supporting a tiger

population.

 

Additionally, Taman Negara has been identified as an area of Global Priority

for conservation.

 

The study was done by the World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation

Society, the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and Save the Tiger Fund.

 

 

Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat) co-ordinator Loretta Ann

Soosayraj said Malaysia's status as a TCL depended largely upon local

enforcement efforts to protect tiger habitats.

 

She said large areas like the Belum-Temenggor forest north of Peninsular

Malaysia should be protected as it was a known tiger habitat.

 

The Belum-Temenggor forest is the second largest tract of virgin forest in

the country after Taman Negara.

 

The study also recommends that " corridors " or links be created between

tiger-inhabited forests.

 

Malaysia is able to provide a solution in this context with the Temenggor

forest according to Malaysian Nature Society executive director Dr Loh Chi

Leong.

 

Besides being a tiger-rich forest, the Temenggor forest acts as a link

between the Main Range of Malaysia and the remaining forests in Kelantan, he

said.

 

" Thus the Temenggor forest can act as corridor, " he added.

 

This will allow for fewer tiger habitats to be isolated or fragmented.

 

The study says investing in a global priority area will ensure conservation

of not just tigers, but " tigerness " .

 

This refers to the many ways tigers have evolved in order to survive in

places as different as mangrove swamps and boreal forests.

 

The Wildlife Department 's biodiversity conservation division director Siti

Hawa Yatim said Taman Negara was secure as a tiger habitat.

 

" That forest will be there for a long time, " she said.

 

In addition, the department sends in its officers almost every day into the

forest for enforcement and management purposes.

 

Siti Hawa, however, expressed concern over other tracts of forests in the

country, especially those not gazetted as wildlife reserves.

 

With wildlife reserves, tiger habitats have a better chance of being

protected as such reserves come under federal jurisdiction, she said.

 

Areas not gazetted or are merely gazetted as forest reserves are at the

mercy of the whims of state authorities.

 

Malaysia has an estimated 600 tigers compared to 3,000 in the 1950s.