Sabah mulls new 'life corridor' for elephants

Kota Kinabalu: The State Government is contemplating creating a new "corridor of life" linking three known pygmy elephant habitats which will have ample food and thus ensure their survival through minimising conflict with humans.

They are the Lower Kinabatangan Managed Elephant Range (MER), Tabin MER and Central Sabah MER in the Danum area.

The forests in these elephant habitat are a mix of primary and secondary forests. Elephants eat grasses, roots, fruit and bark.

They use their tusks to pull the bark from trees and dig roots out of the ground. An adult elephant can eat 300 pounds (136kg) of food in a day,and drink up to 150-200 litres of water per day.

"For a start, we will consider planting vegetation (grasses and shrubs) in the three areas individually before connecting the areas at a later stage of development.

"The aim is to create a sustainable food chain within the three Managed Elephant Ranges. Such move will avert crop damage in the oil-palm plantations andsmallholdings," a joint meeting involving the two State Ministries concluded.

The Ministries involved are the Ministry of Tourism, Culture Ministers (Datuk Christina Liew) and and Environment and Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (Datuk Junz Wong).

This is in view of 116 elephant deaths recorded between October 2010 and September this year. Of this, 30 elephants died this year alone, the latest, a female aged between 12 and 15 years, died at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve (Tawau) on October 18.

According to Dr Roza, a veterinarian with the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) who conducted the post-mortem, the elephant died due to a fight with other elephants.

It was decided that given the loss of habitat, the 2,000-odd elephants need a "home" so that they will not encroach into oil-palm plantations and risk getting snared or shot to death.

"Bornean pygmy elephants are a 'prestige' breed as they are peculiar to Borneo. We are intensifying our efforts to protect the elephants and prevent their extinction.

"In the meantime, we need the cooperation of plantation owners and workers in not causing any harm to the animals but to inform the relevant authorities (Sabah Wildlife Department) in the event of any encroachment," the Ministers said in a joint statement.

Expressing the Government's determination to resolve the human-elephant conflict, Liew, who is also a Deputy Chief Minister, and Wong stressed that political will is indispensable in this respect.

"A special task force will be set up, comprising officials from the ministries and relevant agencies," they said. The SWD has been entrusted with the task of preparing a paper on the proposed Resolution of the Human-Elephant Conflict in Sabah for submission to the State Cabinet. Assistant Director (Bornean Elephants Conservation Unit) Dr Sen Nathan has been asked to prepare the paper.

The DCM said the joint meeting was in response to the call by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal to the two ministries to collectively address the outstanding problem.

It was unanimously agreed that the Sabah Forestry Department be enlisted in the Elephant Protection Cause. Its Director will be invited to attend the next meeting.

Breakdown of the total number of elephant deaths is as follows : 2010 (2), 2011 (6), 2012 (5), 2013 (23), 2014 (6), 2015 (15), 2016 (20), 2017 (9) and 2018 (30).

Number of elephant deaths by district is as follows : Died in captivity (2), Keningau (1), Tawau/Kalabakan (35), Lahad Datu (30), Kinabatangan (31) and Sandakan/Telupid (17).

The meeting also discussed the possibility of getting agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry to "adopt" one or two elephants in the interest of their well-being. Liew suggested that the previous plan of "loaning" an elephant to the Rasa Ria Reserve in Tuaran, be re-visited if possible.

Rosmadi conceded that with the presence of 15 elephants, there is congestion at the LWP. "Ideally, by international convention, the zoo should have only four to five elephants. So the rest should be in the wild but then there is not enough food," he said while emphasising the need to relocate 10 elephants to other areas.

Meanwhile, the Minister questioned Tuuga over the five-month delay in the completion of renovation works at the LWP. It was supposed to have been completed by the end of September. Rosmadi said the works will be completed by the end of October.

The issue of smuggling of plants was also brought to the Minister's attention.

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https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/08/30/landowners-made-liable-for-elephant-deaths-in-sabah/

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is making landowners responsible for deaths of wildlife, especially elephants, on their properties.

Effective immediately, Deputy Chief Minister Christina Liew said the state government will implement a strict liability policy in which landowners will be deemed responsible for the deaths.

She said the rule will also apply to all forest reserves and concessions belonging to Sabah government, such as Sabah Foundation timber concessions as well as smallholders.

She ordered all plantation owners and landowners where wildlife roam to remove all snare traps from their lands immediately or face the consequences.

“We have no choice now but to do this. Some people think that because elephants died on government land, then no action will be taken.

“But from now on, this is not so. This human-elephant conflict has been going on long enough and now it is getting worse.

“It leaves us little choice but to put our foot down,” she said.

Yesterday, the Sabah Wildlife Department reported that 25 elephants have died since January this year, the highest number of deaths it has recorded so far.

The latest was the death of a female elephant in Tongod on Saturday. Wildlife officers believe a baby elephant was also killed at the scene but the carcass was taken away for some reason.

Liew said the Sabah government had decided to hire a foreign expert on elephant protection and conservation to assist the state in solving the increasing problem of elephant deaths.

She said the foreign expert, from Oregon Zoo in the United States, would be part of an advisory council to help ensure better protection of wildlife and manage human-wildlife conflict.

“Once that is done, we will set up a special unit to act on the advice of the council. It is hoped this council will be able to tell us what exactly is the problem that has caused our elephants to die,” she said.

Liew, who is also the state tourism, culture and environment minister, said she had a meeting with the ministry’s permanent secretary and they have decided to invoke Section 33 of the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment.

Under Section 33 of the enactment, any person who commits an offence listed under the law shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of between RM20,000 and RM100,000 or to imprisonment for a term between six months and five years, or to both.

Under the clause, the director of the Sabah Wildlife Department is given the power to prosecute those found guilty of killing or possessing wildlife without licence.

“We are desperate now because even though we have put up RM120,000 for information and witnesses, nobody has taken up the offer.

“These senseless killings must stop,” she said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shafie Apdal said all the relevant agencies must work together with people living in conflict zones and educate them in tackling problems of elephant intrusion in villages, farms and plantations.

He said he had ordered two state ministers, Liew and Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Junz Wong, to hold meetings with plantation owners in known elephant habitats.

He said these owners or managements must engage their workers to get them to help in the fight against poaching and killings in their areas.

“The plantation workers have shown they are responsible as they have reported unusual activities like stray baby elephants or snared elephants.

“Plantation owners and farmers should also make the effort to remove snare traps placed in their areas by poachers.”

He said elephants in Sabah are totally protected by the law and it is a crime to hurt or kill them.

He urged the people of Sabah to be vigilant and lend their eyes and ears to protect the elephants.

Shafie said although he understands the plight of farmers and planters as they have to protect their land against wildlife foraging in their farms, they had no right to kill them.

“I am aware of the need for forest corridors to link fragmented forests in the east coast of Sabah. I hope we can fast-track this with the help of NGOs.

“I am told that there are only 1,500 to 2,500 elephants left in the wild and they could go extinct in a few decades.”

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