2013, a bad year for Sabah wildlife

The year 2013 will go down in the annals of history as ‘annus horribilis’ for Sabah wildlife.

The gruesome death of 14 Borneo pygmy elephants near Gunung Lara Forest Reserves will not be easily forgotten nor can the killers be forgiven.

Neither are we likely to forget the grim images of bush meat (picture left from The Star) from protected animals being sold in the broad day light in Nabawan and Keningau, where ironically the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) office is located.

According to tengoktvonline.blogspot, which tipped-off SWD, trade of Sambar and Barking deer meat among others have been going on for some time and without valid permits.

Wildlife meat trading in Nabawan is just the tip of an iceberg of the sheer size of that illegal market.

What are the SWD enforcers doing while poachers flaunted the law?

Why are the arrest of small time offenders given so much media publicity alongside our politicians, bureaucrat and the Danum Girang Field Centre who all appear to be competing for public attention.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun spoke like a tough guy when he warned that “the war on illegal wildlife trade and poaching has just begun, so hunters and poachers in Sabah be warned that there will be no compromise as we will be prosecuting and we will charge them to the highest extent of the law. Be ready to go to jail”.

Then SWD director Laurentius Ambu asserted that they “will be increasing regular surveillance on all districts in Sabah for illegal poaching and trading by beefing up its wildlife enforcement capabilities and efficiency by setting up a separate unit”.

But for all the big talk, nine days after Nabawan raid, yet another case of poaching was reported.

Caught red-handed but …

A senior Programme Manager for WWF and three SWD honorary wardens were patrolling near Benta Wawasan Tawau (palm oil plantation wholly owned by Innoprise Corporation, Yayasan Sabah) when they stopped a 4WD with a cooler box containing two carcass of Palanok (Greater Mousedeer), one carcass of Lutung merah (Red Leaf Monkey/Langur) and six Bekakuk (homemade guns).

The patrol team was told by two men wearing military fatigue that they went hunting to get some meat for Christmas and were waiting for their colleagues who were still in the jungle.

The hunters spoke Murut among themselves and bragged to the patrol team that they went hunting with “permission” from a high-ranked law enforcer in Sandakan.

Even after being threatened, the WWF senior manager and wardens insisted that dead animals should be surrendered to SWD in Tawau.

The patrol team lodged a police report but the armed hunters went free just like that.

The records on arrest show majority of poachers are low-income local people.

Almost all are married men who live in urban areas but maintain close family connection with their villagers (place of origin).

The three sellers arrested at the Nabawan market are just orang kampung (villagers).

Arresting them for not having a license to sell bush meat will have no deterrent effects.

Firstly, due process at the district level takes forever. A district SWD officer said there were 10 similar cases pending prosecution.

Secondly sellers at the market are poor people. Income from selling high priced bush meat means a lot to them.

It seems to me that sellers at Nabawan and Keningau markets rather pay fines than a license.

Why? Because they are not qualified to own a licensed gun. To transfer an ownership of licensed gun is a very lengthy and daunting process, getting a new one is almost impossible.

So they buy illegal bekakuk, again taking a high risk of getting caught (14 years jail under section 4 Firearms Act 1971).

The cartridges can be bought from licensed gun owners.

Don’t you think it is kind of sad that poor people are taking so many risks? Incidentally in the Nabawan case, SWD arrested one seller and the three others who escaped were probably either the poachers themselves or related to the culprits.

Dead elephants

The year’s grand finale is the tale of the 14 dead elephants in January.

It was the main conversation during our family New Year celebration back in the kampung.

My cousin who lives in Tabin said four dead elephants were suspected of being poisoned. Another already inebriated cousin from Kinabatangan added “try Kinabatangan, we saw another eight dead elephants also poisoned. You can smell the pesticide from the carcass”.

Asked what kind of people would be so sadistic as to kill these elephants slowly, my cousin said the perpetrators were “not heartless”.

They were “angry, frustrated and feeling hopeless” not with elephants but with the oil palm big players for greedily taking and fencing all the space including elephants forage routes and their natural habitats.

If SWD are doing their job, the elephants will not end up destroying villagers’ farms, palm oil and forest plantations.

Who is going to compensate them for that?

It all makes sense. What my cousins were talking about is the distribution of costs and benefits of conserving the elephants.

The benefits of having more elephant’s alive accrued mostly to general public, NGOs, State government and tourism players in Kinabatangan.

But none of them actually have to pay the private costs in terms of damaged crops.

It is not that these people don’t love animals.

Elephants cannot be conserved successfully unless gainers are willing to compensate the losers.


By James Alin
James Alin is a lecturer in the School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah