PUTRAJAYA, March 3 (Bernama) — Wildlife conservation efforts must be further strengthened to create a conducive environment and minimise the conflict between humans and wildlife, said Natural Resources Minister, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.
In his message in conjunction with the 2023 World Wildlife Day today, he said the conflict between humans and wildlife could result in the loss of lives, injuries, destruction of crops, death of livestock and destruction of property.
According to him, 25 people were killed and 270 suffered injuries after being attacked by wild animals from 2018 to 2022, while the estimated total loss during the period due to attacks by wildlife was RM43.3 million.
He also said among the efforts to conserve and preserve wildlife is through enforcement of the Wildlife Conservation (Amendment) Act 2022 (Act A1646), the provision of biodiversity and forest conservation incentives (Ecological Fiscal Transfer for Biodiversity Conservation – EFT), the appointment of community ranger and Operasi Bersepadu Khazanah (OBK) under the Biodiversity Protection and Patrolling Programme (BP3).
He said the tightening of the enforcement operation had resulted in the seizure of various wildlife products such as elephant ivory, rhino wick, pangolin scales and Red Sanders wood that are being smuggled through Malaysia as a transit destination.
Nik Nazmi said Malaysia’s success in listing the Barau-barau or Straw-headed Bulbul bird (Pycnonotus zeylanicus) to Appendix 1 CITES and the white-rumped shama (Burung Murai Batu) (Kittacincla malabarica) on Appendix ll CITES at the 19th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP19) last year clearly showed the government’s continuous commitment in ensuring that wildlife in the country are protected so that they do not become extinct.
Malaysia has been a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since Jan 18, 1978.
CITES is responsible for ensuring that the international trade of endangered fauna and flora species does not affect the survival of the species while increasing the effectiveness of wildlife conservation efforts in its habitat.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency