Once in a while we come across stories from across Malaysia that warm the cockles of our hearts. Some of these stories involve locals who do the right thing and help protect the country’s ever-beleaguered wildlife. A case in point is a man who came across a young Sunda pangolin…
News travels fast and the butchery of some 100 endangered sea turtles on an island off Semporna in Sabah has made news worldwide in conservationists circles since the carcasses of the reptiles were discovered a week or so ago. Such is the fate of Malaysia these days: often the country,…
First came the crime: the remains of as many as 100 sea turtles were discovered on Bum-Bum Island off Semporna in Sabah. The carcasses of the protected reptiles had been stripped off their shells. The culprits could have been stateless seafaring nomads who live off the coast of Borneo and…
If you participate in wildlife crimes, directly or indirectly, you should stop. If you do stop, you will be let off lightly. If you continue breaking wildlife laws, however, you risk getting nabbed and possibly slapped with a severe penalty. That’s the message that Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim, director-general of…
Wildlife crimes and corruption routinely go hand in hand. For starters, without certain officials willing to turn a blind eye to rampant trafficking (for kickbacks and other rewards), traffickers would have a much harder time. But the problem can go much deeper than that. A pervasive culture of bribery, money laundering and institutionalized…