WWF's Malaysian wildlife champion

[Guest guest]

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0914-hance_megafauna.html

*Saving the last megafauna of Malaysia, an interview with Reuben Clements

Jeremy Hance <http://news.mongabay.com/news-index/jeremy_hance1.html>

mongabay.com

September 15, 2009

*

 

*Reuben Clements is the species conservation manager for WWF-Malaysia's

Malayan tiger and Sumatran rhino projects. Mongabay.com's fifth in a series

of interviews with 'Young

Scientists'<http://news.mongabay.com/news-index/interviews_with_young_scientists\

1.html>

..*

 

*And second in a series of interviews with participants at the 2009

Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) conference.*

 

Reuben Clements has achieved one success after another since graduating

from the National University of Singapore. Currently working in peninsular

Malaysia, he manages conservation programs for the Endangered Malayan tiger

and the Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino with the World Wide Fund for

Nature (WWF)-Malaysia. At the same time he has discovered three new species

of microsnails, one of which was named in the top ten new species of 2008 (a

BIG achievement for a snail) due to its peculiar shell which has four

different coiling axes.

 

 

Clements on anti-poaching patrol, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by:

Haslinda Latip. " The most for any known gastropod! " Clements told

Mongabay.com. " In addition, the whorls thrice detach and twice reattach to

preceding whorls in a fairly consistent manner, which suggests that the

coiling strategy is under some form of strict developmental-gene control. "

 

It was these microsnails, and not the tigers and rhinos as one might expect,

that piqued Clement's interest in wildlife and conservation. Clements says

that after starting a seashell collection the Philippines at the age of

twelve, he developed a deeper interest in conservation during a trip to

Malaysia—just as he was about to study engineering at the age of twenty.

 

" My friends brought me to limestone karsts in the jungles of Northern

Peninsular Malaysia where we spent days searching for micro-landsnails. Not

only was I awe-struck standing under towering karsts, I was also amazed by

the bizarre and minute snail species that I found on the rocks, some of

which were probably found in one place and nowhere else on Earth. On the way

back, however, I witnessed several limestone hills being blasted away for

cement, and with it, probably lots of endemic snails, " Clements says. " I

think that’s when my conservation ethic first grew. "

 

 

A karst blasted away for limestone, Ipoh, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo

by: Reuben Clements. Clements is now acting on his conservation ethic every

day. He describes his job with WWF as " a blast! " and is clearly comfortable

tracking tigers and elephants in the field, working with indigenous tribes,

dealing with armed poachers, and creating new initiatives to save the last

megafauna of Southeast Asia.

 

" Working for WWF-Malaysia has given me an invaluable perspective on

real-world conservation, " Clements says. " That’s something I could never get

if I stayed on in the university. "

 

While Clements has yet to see a tiger in the wild, he says that isn't

unusual as his team has spent years tracking them without seeing one.

 

" Tigers face an uncertain future in Malaysia, " he says of their

conservation. " The population may be less than 500. But this is just an

estimate. " Clements adds that the country needs more tiger surveys " to

assess the true conservation status of the Malayan tiger. "

 

 

Adult tiger caught on camera traps (seen attached to tree) in Temengor

Forest Reserve, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia. Pointing

to the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers

(MYCAT)<http://www.malayantiger.net/>,

Clements see the possibility of saving this biggest of the big cats. He says

that " the government with support from MYCAT has […] come up with the

National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, which details 80 activities to be

implemented by government agencies and MYCAT partners in order to double

wild populations by 2020. "

 

However to achieve this goal, a lot more needs to be done. " Government and

private companies that are driving infrastructure development (e.g.,

construction of roads) and the clear-felling of natural forests for timber

and agriculture plantations need to be engaged by conservationists, who can

try and transform business practices in order to mitigate or prevent

potentially disastrous impacts on tiger habitats, " Clements explains. " With

increased political will and improvement in public attitudes towards

wildlife conservation, I think there’s a fighting chance to prevent the

tiger from going extinct. "

 

The outlook for the Sumatran rhino is even more alarming: " poaching

continues to be the main threat and habitat loss is exacerbating their

decline. Fifteen years ago, Alan Rabinowitz highlighted the plight of the

Sumatran rhino in an article entitled 'Helping a species go extinct: the

Sumatran Rhino in Borneo'. Strong political will was required to arrest the

rhino horn trade and to ensure that ex-situ breeding programmes were

successful, but saving this species was not one of the priorities then. "

Clements adds that he supports an initiative in Malaysian Borneo that plans

to bring the few remaining rhinos there together in a large enclosure to

breed naturally.

 

Looking generally at biodiversity across the region, Clements says that " the

extinction crisis in Southeast Asia is real. " He points to a number of

sources to prove this: " A study in 2003 predicted that around 21-48% of

mammals in Southeast Asia will be extinct by 2100 and there’s been plenty of

supporting evidence since then. For example, a study claimed that tigers,

elephants, rhinos and tapirs are expected to vanish from many protected

areas in Sumatra when its lowland forests are completely destroyed by 2036.

On the same island, scientists also predict that the Sumatran orang-utan

will be the first great ape to go extinct in the coming decades. In fact,

based on the latest 2009 IUCN Red List, more mammals in Southeast Asia

appear closer to extinction than ever. "

 

What can be done to turn this around? Aside from attempting to save

dwindling species and pockets of habitat on the ground, Clements spends a

lot of his time on programs to instill a conservation ethic in others.

 

" At one of our project sites where we conducted a series of [conservation]

awareness talks, we got several villagers to form a Wildlife Protection Unit

(WPU) to chase away elephants and conduct anti-poaching patrols. Now they’re

spreading the conservation message themselves in other villages through

‘Dikir Barat’, which is a cultural musical performance that involves singing

in groups with some simple instruments, " Clements says, adding that there

are many ways to reach people about the importance of conservation.

" Recently, we adopted a novel approach to raise conservation awareness

through Islamic sermons. Soon, we will be conducting education talks with

indigenous communities at our project site to highlight the plight of

threatened mammals around their villages and perhaps even get them to form

more WPUs. At the end of the day, we may not be able to turn poachers

around. What we hope is that poachers may eventually succumb to peer

pressure from a community that is increasingly exposed to the importance of

conservation. "

 

In a September 2009 interview Mongabay spoke with Clements about discovering

new microsnails, the conservation of Malayan tigers and Sumatran rhinos, the

bushmeat and palm oil threats, as well as his advice for future

conservationists.

 

*PERSONAL*

 

*Mongabay:* *How did you become interested in wildlife? What is your

background?*

 

 

 

 

 

Top: Towering limestone karsts, Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia. Bottom:

Micro-landsnails less than 5mm from a karst in Kelantan, Peninsular

Malaysia. Photos by: Reuben Clements. *Reuben Clements:* There were two key

moments that spiked my interest in wildlife conservation. The first was when

I was 12. My dad brought me to a beach in Singapore one evening and I

started collecting seashells during the low tide. From then on, I started

beachcombing more regularly and became interested in molluscs and their

multitude of shell forms and colour. Soon after, I started learning their

scientific names from books and became an avid shell collector. The second

turning point was at the age of 20. My friends brought me to limestone

karsts in the jungles of Northern Peninsular Malaysia where we spent days

searching for micro-landsnails. Not only was I awe-struck standing under

towering karsts, I was also amazed by the bizarre and minute snail species

that I found on the rocks, some of which were probably found in one place

and nowhere else on Earth. On the way back, however, I witnessed several

limestone hills being blasted away for cement, and with it, probably lots of

endemic snails. I think that’s when my conservation ethic first grew and I

stopped collecting shells soon after. When I returned to Singapore, I

withdrew my original university application to the faculty of engineering

and switched to a degree in biology because I wanted to learn more about

tropical biodiversity and conservation. Ironically, my collection phase was

probably instrumental in developing an appreciation for nature and wildlife

conservation!

 

*Mongabay:* *How did your education at the National University of Singapore

prepare you to succeed in conservation biology?*

 

 

 

 

 

Top: remant peat swamp, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. Bottom: A cave

chamber in the Gelanggi karst, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. Photos by:

Reuben Clements. *Reuben Clements:* I was lucky that the undergraduate

biology modules still included elements of taxonomy, botany and zoology.

It’s a pity that the current curriculum places more emphasis on molecular

biology than natural history. I owe a great deal to Professor Daiqin Li for

taking me into his lab as an honours student, and to Professors Navjot Sodhi

and Peter Ng for allowing me to work on a topic that they were not familiar

with – limestone karst and mollusc conservation. It was thrilling to return

to the very same limestone karsts I saw when I was 20, this time as a

researcher and not a collector! During this period, I caught the ‘research

bug’ from these guys and managed to hone my scientific writing skills. There

were also numerous opportunities to participate in several expeditions to

poorly-explored rainforests, caves and peat swamps to find elusive organisms

ranging from the world’s smallest vertebrate (a fish called *Paedocypris*)

to the world’s largest flower (*Rafflesia*). During these trips to Malaysia

and Indonesia, I got a first-hand glimpse of threats to biodiversity and

gained a better understanding of conservation issues within the region. So

the research culture and field experiences accumulated during my MSc

candidature has really placed me in a good stead to succeed as a

conservation scientist.

 

*Mongabay:* *What is it like to work with World Wide Fund for Nature

(WWF)-Malaysia, the world’s largest conservation organization?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* It’s been a blast! Working for WWF-Malaysia has given me

an invaluable perspective on real-world conservation. That’s something I

could never get if I stayed on in the university. I have been really

fortunate to work with a team of like-minded and passionate individuals.

Trekking into remote forests in search of tigers, elephants and other large

mammals, coming face to face with nomadic indigenous communities and armed

poachers, meeting passionate field staff throughout our project sites in

Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, travelling to offices such as Thailand and

Indonesia to develop tiger and rhino conservation strategies with experts

from the WWF network – all these moments have made it an amazing and

thoroughly fulfilling adventure.

 

*THE MALAYAN TIGER AND THE SUMATRAN RHINO*

 

 

Chatting with nomadic indigenous people, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo

by: WWF-Malaysia. *Mongabay:* *How are Malayan tigers faring in Malaysia?

Why are they considered to be the next tiger subspecies most likely to go

extinct?*

 

*Reuben Clements: *Tigers face an uncertain future in Malaysia. The

population may be less than 500. But this is just an estimate. So far, there

have only been a couple of scientifically defensible camera-trapping

surveys; these have yielded reasonable population densities of around 2-3

tigers/100km2. Nevertheless, more of these surveys need to be conducted,

particularly across the entire the landscape to assess the true conservation

status of the Malayan tiger. In contrast, the next tiger subspecies to go

extinct would probably be the Sumatran tiger.

 

*Mongabay:* *What needs to be done to save the species?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* That can really be answered in a 10-page essay, but I’ll

be brief! Scientists have already identified poaching to be the most

immediate threat to the survival of wild tigers. For a start, governments in

tiger range states need to recognize this threat and commit to the

deployment of more anti-poaching and intelligence units in and around

protected areas and selectively-logged forests to reduce poaching rates of

tigers and tiger prey. Transboundary enforcement efforts need to be stepped

up to reduce the rampant trade of tigers and their body parts flowing

through porous borders. Governments and NGOs need to form alliances and

develop conservation strategies that are implemented and regularly

monitored. A model to follow would be the Malaysian Conservation Alliance

for Tigers (MYCAT) <http://www.malayantiger.net/>, which is a coalition made

up of four NGOs with support from the government (www.malayantiger.net). The

government with support from MYCAT has also come up with the National Tiger

Action Plan for Malaysia, which details 80 activities to be implemented by

government agencies and MYCAT partners in order to double wild populations

by 2020. Government and private companies that are driving infrastructure

development (e.g., construction of roads) and the clear-felling of natural

forests for timber and agriculture plantations need to be engaged by

conservationists, who can try and transform business practices in order to

mitigate or prevent potentially disastrous impacts on tiger habitats. With

increased political will and improvement in public attitudes towards

wildlife conservation, I think there’s a fighting chance to prevent the

tiger from going extinct.

 

*Mongabay:* *Is it difficult to track tigers? Have you ever had any close

encounters with the great cat?*

 

 

Tiger pugmark recorded from a monitoring survey in Temengor Forest Reserve,

Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia. *Reuben Clements:* When

it comes to tracking tigers, it really depends on where you are. If you’re

walking in an undisturbed primary forest with lots of leaf litter on the

ground, it may be difficult to find tiger pugmarks. But if you’re walking

along logging roads, it’s easier to find the pugmarks in the mud. Most of

the tigers in our project sites have been caught on film by our camera traps

(pic8). However, seeing a tiger is all about being in the right place at the

right time. I guess I’m unlucky (or lucky) not to have seen one yet. The

most experienced tiger field biologist in my team has also never seen one

despite conducting tiger surveys in remote forests for five years!

 

*Mongabay:* *There are less than 300 Sumatra Rhinos in the world and only 30

or so Bornean Rhinoceroses left. How did things get so bad?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* Well if rhino horns for traditional Chinese medicine

didn’t fetch as much as it does in the black market, I think there would be

more Sumatran rhinos (pic9) around. Poaching continues to be the main threat

and habitat loss is exacerbating their decline. Fifteen years ago, Alan

Rabinowitz highlighted the plight of the Sumatran rhino in an article

entitled " Helping a species go extinct: the Sumatran Rhino in Borneo " .

Strong political will was required to arrest the rhino horn trade and to

ensure that ex-situ breeding programmes were successful, but saving this

species was not one of the priorities then.

 

 

Adult male Sumatran rhino found lost in an oil palm plantation, Sabah,

Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia. *Mongabay:* *How likely do you think it is

that the new rhino sanctuary in Malaysian Borneo will be able to save that

subspecies?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* We will never know for sure if the Borneo Rhino sanctuary

(BRS) will save the species. But it’s better to do something than leave

things as they are. The sanctuary’s plan is to get all the isolated rhinos

in Sabah trans-located into a fenced-up protected area in order to maximize

the chances of rhinos mating. I feel that this in-situ breeding programme

has a better shot at saving the rhinos than leaving them cut off from one

another in fragmented forests – this will almost certainly doom them to

extinction.

 

*Mongabay:* *How are conservation efforts proceeding on mainland Malaysia

with the Western Sumatran Rhino?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* Other than government rangers patrolling in search for

rhinos in Peninsular Malaysia, there are no similar initiatives on the scale

of the BRS. We need to find the rhinos first before we can start something

like that.

 

*CONSERVATION AND THREATS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA*

 

*Mongabay:* *How on track is Southeast Asia for the 2010 biodiversity target

of conserving 10 percent of their ecological regions?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* Based on feedback from the 23rd annual meeting of the

Society for Conservation Biology held in Beijing last July, most scientists

felt that we are not going to reach this target. I don’t know of anyone who

has sat down to do the math, so I can’t comment. But it is highly likely

that other targets such as Target 2.1 (Restore, maintain, or reduce the

decline of populations of species of selected taxonomic groups) or Target

2.2 (Status of threatened species improved) will probably not be met because

you seldom come across reports or scientific papers documenting the

population recovery of threatened species, especially mammals.

 

*Mongabay:* *What role has the explosion of palm oil in Malaysia had on the

country’s biodiversity? Has it affected the species you work with directly?*

 

 

Expanding oil palm plantations replacing natural forests, Jeli, Kelantan,

Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia. *Reuben Clements:* Without a

doubt, but it’s not just oil palm, it’s other crops such as rubber as well.

In Malaysia, large areas of lowland dipterocarp forests, which were formerly

the main habitats for rhinos, elephants and tigers, were rapidly converted

to oil palm and timber plantations through government and private land

development schemes since the country gained independence in 1957. According

to a recent study, between 55 and 59% of oil palm expansion in Malaysia

between 1990 and 2005 originated from the clearance of natural forests. As a

result, many threatened wildlife have been displaced from their natural

habitats and this has escalated human-wildlife conflict throughout the

country. In addition, the expansion of oil palm and timber plantations has

probably increased poaching incidences in adjacent forest habitats due to

greater accessibility.

 

*Mongabay:* *How has bushmeat hunting or poaching for medicines affected

species across Southeast Asia?*

 

*Reuben Clements: *It really depends on the species. In Thailand, for

example, surveys among local communities found that commercial hunting was

responsible for declines across most mammal species, while subsistence

hunting affected smaller mammals such as deer and primates. Felids such as

tigers, in particular, are more affected by commercial hunting. A TRAFFIC

survey showed that parts of the Sumatran tiger were increasingly found on

sale in local markets in Indonesia between 2002 and 2006 due to demands as

far as South Korea! In Malaysia, surveys by researchers are also

encountering fewer signs of the sambar deer, which is an important prey for

tigers but continues to be hunted legally and illegally. But poaching is not

just for medicine. In Sumatra, around 1000 orang utans are estimated to be

removed from the wild annually particularly for the pet trade, while around

200-500 Bornean orang utans and hundreds of gibbons suffer similar fates in

Kalimantan every year. In Myanmar, the decline of wild elephant and bear

populations has been attributed primarily to the illegal trade as evidenced

by numerous parts on sale in local border markets. Depressing isn’t it?

 

*Mongabay:* *How do you reach people in the region about the importance of

biodiversity and forests?*

 

 

Community based WPU Jeli members that protected their villages by chasing

away elephants, Jeli, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia.

*Reuben Clements:* I can only speak on my team’s work in Malaysia. So far,

my team has conducted outreach programmes at rural and urban schools and I

also give talks to research institutes and university students to educate

the younger generations and hopefully inspire some budding conservationists.

We also educate the adults (which is arguably the most important target

group since they are the ones that are responsible for development and

poaching) through roadshows showcasing wildlife conservation issues at local

evening markets in rural and urban areas. At one of our project sites where

we conducted a series of awareness talks, we got several villagers to form a

Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU) to chase away elephants and conduct

anti-poaching patrols. Now they’re spreading the conservation message

themselves in other villages through ‘Dikir Barat’, which is a cultural

musical performance that involves singing in groups with some simple

instruments. Recently, we adopted a novel approach to raise conservation

awareness through Islamic sermons. Soon, we will be conducting education

talks with indigenous communities at our project site to highlight the

plight of threatened mammals around their villages and perhaps even get them

to form more WPUs. At the end of the day, we may not be able to turn

poachers around. What we hope is that poachers may eventually succumb to

peer pressure from a community that is increasingly exposed to the

importance of conservation.

 

*Mongabay:* *What role do you think Islam can play in creating a

conservation ethic in Malaysia?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* Islam is the predominant religion in Malaysia and can be

a powerful medium to nurture a conservation ethic among Muslims. Because it

is mandatory for male Muslims to attend Friday prayers, Islamic sermons can

function as an effective conduit to raise conservation awareness and

concern. In Islam the teachings of the Qur’an and Hadiths actually contain

numerous texts encouraging Muslims to protect the natural world. For

example, the Prophet said, " A good deed done to a beast is as good as doing

good to a human being. " Similar messages are found in other religions as

well, so conservation practitioners should explore the role of religion in

their outreach programmes.

 

*Mongabay:* *Given the magnitude of threats and the increasingly small

populations of species, do you think Southeast Asia as a region is in the

midst of an extinction crisis?*

 

 

WPU Gerik members and me checking on surveillance cameras placed in a

poaching hotspot, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia. *Reuben

Clements:* For several years, many scientists have been predicting massive

extinctions for the region. A study in 2003 predicted that around 21-48% of

mammals in Southeast Asia will be extinct by 2100 and there’s been plenty of

supporting evidence since then. For example, a study claimed that tigers,

elephants, rhinos and tapirs are expected to vanish from many protected

areas in Sumatra when its lowland forests are completely destroyed by 2036.

On the same island, scientists also predict that the Sumatran orang utan

will be the first great ape to go extinct in the coming decades. In fact,

based on the latest 2009 IUCN Red List, more mammals in Southeast Asia

appear closer to extinction than ever. So yes, the extinction crisis in

Southeast Asia is real.

 

*Mongabay:* *What do you need to turn the situation around—more media

coverage, more public awareness, more research, more on-the-ground efforts,

more money?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* I think that’s an appropriate wish-list. Just to be

greedier, I would also like to see more young graduates leave their comfort

zones and join the conservation cause. We need all the help we can get!

 

*MICROSNAILS*

 

 

 

 

 

Checking out microlandsnails on a limestone karst, Kelantan, Peninsular

Malaysia. Photos by: Haslinda Latip. *Mongabay:* *Your discovery of a new

species of microsnail (Opisthostoma vermiculum) attracted a lot of media

attention including the New York Times and was voted one of top ten species

discovered last year. Did so much coverage come as a surprise to you?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* Yes it’s been a pleasant surprise! It just goes to show

that even the tiniest of creatures can have their day in the sun.

 

*Mongabay:* *What makes the species so special?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* The puzzling shell coiling strategy underscores how

little we know about the relationship between form and function in

gastropods. Most gastropod shells tightly coil according to a logarithmic

spiral and have an upper limit of three coiling axes. When shells do uncoil,

such as those in marine vermitids, they usually do not reattach to preceding

whorls. The shell of *O. vermiculum* (pic13), however, possesses four

different coiling axes - the most for any known gastropod! In addition, the

whorls thrice detach and twice reattach to preceding whorls in a fairly

consistent manner, which suggests that the coiling strategy is under some

form of strict developmental-gene control.

 

*Mongabay:**What are some of the theories as to why the snail has a

four-axle shell?*

 

*Reuben Clements: *We have a list of wild conjectures, but the adaptive

significance of such a bizarre coiling strategy could not be determined. In

our paper, we discussed why hybridization and evolutionary responses to

sessility, gerontic conditions and predator evasion are unlikely

explanations. Environmentally-induced mutations could have played a role in

shaping the phenotype, but this hypothesis can only be investigated once

missing fossil intermediates are found at the same site. Evolutionary

biologists have been making great strides in improving our understanding of

the relationship between form and function, but this bizarre shell really

brings some of us back to the drawing board!

 

*Mongabay:* *You’ve found three new species of snail (so far). Are you lucky

or just persistent?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* Luck has every bit to do with it!

 

*THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE*

 

*Mongabay:* *What is a normal day for you (or is there such a thing) at

WWF-Malaysia?*

 

 

Close-up of Sumatran rhino. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia. *Reuben Clements:* It’s

never a routine and my schedule is really fluid. In my capacity as a

manager, a day at the HQ could range from doing administrative work such as

proposals and budgets to discussions with my staff, colleagues and

government officials. A day at my project site could range from talking to

local and indigenous communities in order to garner support for a particular

conservation initiative, to staking out poaching hotspots with my Wildlife

Protection Unit. In between, I may have to fly off for a workshop overseas

or shoot off into the jungles with my tiger and rhino monitoring units. But

with all this action going on, I have had to spend many weekends clearing my

inbox and writing reports! A lot of sacrifices have to be made, but I think

it’s well worth it.

 

*Mongabay:* *Given that you have had a very successful career so far, what

advice would you give to a student in Southeast Asia interested in pursuing

conservation?*

 

 

Close-up of adult tiger taken with a camera trap. Photo by:

WWF-Malaysia. *Reuben

Clements: *My advice to aspiring conservationists is to get out into the

field, specialize in a particular ecosystem or taxon, network, volunteer

with your nearest NGO, and publish scientific papers. Go on road trips in

the nearest biodiversity hotspot and get yourself stuck in swamps, jungles

or reefs. Along the way, you’ll meet a lot of interesting folks and witness

a lot of beauty and destruction that will inspire you and allow you to

better understand the local conservation context. During those trips,

identify a few interesting ecosystems and organisms and read up on their

ecology and threats facing them. Once you develop an interest in a

particular ecosystem or taxon, seek out people with similar interests and

organize field trips together. In university, identify professors who are

aligned with your interests and have a conservation theme in their labs, and

volunteer with local NGOs to get to know others within the conservation

circle from zookeepers to park rangers. I actually got this job through a

friend from the zoo who alerted me to this job posting! Once you get into

graduate school, get one or several of them to supervise you and design

projects that can take you back to those biodiversity hotspots to conduct

your research. Finally, publish your research on a wide variety of topics in

good journals. The more the merrier. I actually worked on snails for my

Masters and my boss told me that he actually hired me because of my good

publication record even though I had no mammal background. But papers are a

proxy for hard work and good research acumen and some employers do look out

for that. This is by no means a blueprint for success. It’s all about being

at the right place at the right time, as with everything in life.

 

*Mongabay:* *What’s next for you? Any special projects we should be aware

of?*

 

*Reuben Clements:* I would like to embark on my Ph.D. soon. It’s always good

to upgrade one’s skills and return as a more all-rounded conservation

scientist. Other than developing new projects with indigenous communities

and government agencies to tackle wildlife crime, there are no special

projects in the pipeline, but watch this space!

 

 

 

 

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while other reserves are now being targeted. Permanent forest reserves are

forest areas that have been set aside for selective logging under

sustainable forest management. They account for 82 percent of Malaysia's

remaining forest cover.

 

 

*Malaysian government says forest reserve 'plundered' for oil palm

development <http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0203-sabah_oil_palm.html>*

 

(02/03/2009) Responding to allegations by the Human Rights Commission of

Malaysia (Suhakam) that indigenous people have been forced from their lands

(a charge it denied), the Sabah Forestry Department said that more than 30

percent of Mt. Pock And Tanjong Nagos Forest Reserves were " plundered " by

" people with means to plant illegal oil palm including companies " up until

2001. The statement is noteworthy in that leaders of the Malaysian Palm Oil

Council, the marketing and lobbying arm of the Malaysian palm oil industry,

have maintained that oil expansion has not taken place at the expense of

natural forest <http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0501-palm_oil.html> in

Malaysia.

 

 

*Malaysia seeks to reverse collapse of tiger population due to poaching,

logging, palm oil <http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1223-tigers_malaysia.html>*

 

(12/23/2008) A new law seeks to double Malaysia's tiger population to 1,000

by 2020, reports *BBC News*.

 

 

*Limestone karsts - islands of biodiversity in Asia - under threat from

mining <http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1110-karsts.html>*

 

(11/10/2008) Researchers have devised a scientific methodology for

prioritizing conservation of limestone karsts, biologically-rich

outcroppings found in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. The

findings are significant because karsts — formed millions of years ago by

sea life — are increasingly threatened by mining and other development

 

 

*Endangered wildlife in Malaysia falls victim to rampant poaching due to

'outdated' laws <http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1104-malaysia.html>*

 

(11/04/2008) In the face of rampant poaching of endangered animals,

conservationists are calling for Malaysia to reform its 36-year-old wildlife

protection law.

 

 

*From " kampung boy " to conservation force in the rainforest of

Borneo<http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0527-poh_sinum.html>

*

 

(05/27/2008) Waidi Sinun oversees three extraordinarily diverse conservation

areas in the Malaysian rainforest, a career shaped by a love for the

environment stemming from childhood memories, as well as the foundation that

fostered his education.