(MY) poachers become hunted

[Guest guest]

Poachers become the hunted-New Straits Times

19 Nov 2006

Jessica Lim

 

 

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KUALA LUMPUR: Poachers beware. This time, you're the ones being hunted.

 

It's little known that since 2002, the army has been roped in to trawl

the forests for poachers in a collaboration with enforcement officers

from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan).

 

The army helped haul in over half of all foreign poachers apprehended

between 2002 and 2005.

 

 

 

Seventy-five foreign poachers have been caught and charged in court;

70 were Thai nationals and the rest from Cambodia.

 

The wrongdoers were fined, jailed and some given two strokes of the cane.

 

Perhilitan director-general Abd Rashid Samsudin said that the

department had faced difficulties catching foreign poachers for years.

 

" Foreign poachers are armed differently and we don't know their

skills. We only have simple shotguns. The foreigners could have M16s.

Who knows?

 

" Our guys are trained to control wildlife, not hunt poachers. That's

where the army comes in. "

 

The joint effort also uncovered 173 illegal camps and 73 wildlife

snares in the country's numerous national parks.

 

Some camps were found only after full four-day treks into the heart of

the forest.

 

Rashid said that the sheer size of the national parks and the

extremely dense undergrowth made catching the poachers challenging.

 

Taman Negara, for example, covers an area nearly six times the size of

Singapore.

 

" Some camps shelter more than 10 people. The department doesn't have

enough manpower to be everywhere, all the time.

 

" Without the proper techniques, or knowing the best entry and exit

points, there's a good chance that all we'll see are the poachers

running away. "

 

One joint operation in Taman Negara Terengganu in 2003, for example,

successfully arrested a gang of 10 Thai men.

 

Rashid said that most of the poaching was opportunistic in nature.

 

From evidence collected at the camps, it is believed that most

poachers were actually illegal agarwood collectors who figured they

might as well make a quick buck along the way.

 

Agarwood, or gaharu, is the world's most expensive incense. Its resin

goes for RM37,000 per kilo in the black market.

 

" They are there to collect agarwood. But if a tiger crosses their

path, they're not about to shoo it away. "

 

While commending the department for its effort, Malaysian Conservation

Alliance for Tigers co-ordinator Loretta Ann Soosayraj said there was

still much work to be done.

 

In assessing the camps, she said the department discovered that the

poachers were prepared to be based there for months at a time.

 

Food supplies seized included large sacks of rice, packets of sugar,

medication and even packets of Milo, Coffeemate and Ajinomoto.

 

There were also wire snares, bullets, hand-drawn maps and the odd animal claw.

 

" If you take it that there are 10 poachers at a campsite, with the

number of camps found, you'll realise that there are a lot of poachers

out there. "