Publicity Stunts

All photos taken on 14 Jan 2010 from a moving coach.

When there are elephants, there are tigers too. They coexist. If you want to save the tigers, you have to save the elephants too. And without jungle how can elephants survive? Look at the rampant logging along the Butterworth-Grik highway. What have these Groups (roaring up support to save Malaysian big cat from extinction) do?? Another publicity stunt? Read my earlier article in 2008 here (map included). I did reported to one of them....but no action seen.

I am worry that a great disaster is waiting to happen after the dry season ends. Mud flow will be affecting villages downstream. Muda river will be polluted. Paddy fields in Kedah could be affected (although these logging are from Perak). I may sound pessimistic. But mark my words. Until then, when the disaster happened, it will be another "Acts of God".

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Thursday January 21, 2010
Groups roaring up support to save Malaysian big cat from extinction
By YENG AI CHUN
Star
aichun@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The Year of the Tiger is upon us – but for wildlife conservationists, it has to be the year of saving the tiger from extinction.

The Malayan tiger is down to a mere 500 in the wild in Peninsular Malaysia and it will need a concerted effort from all to double the number under the Tiger Action Plan, WWF Malaysia chief executive Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma.

However, saving Malaysia’s declining tiger population is no longer a job only for conservationists but needs wider support from the public and private sectors, said

“You can be the person who helped save the tigers, or you can be the one who helped wipe them out,” Dr Dionysius said yesterday.

The Tiger Action Plan, which was launched 2008, aims to have 1,000 wild tigers in Malaysia by 2020.

“This is the best chance we have to seriously attempt to save tigers from extinction, mainly because of the national Tiger Action Plan and policies in place and the unprecedented cooperation between the Government and NGO community.

“With the eyes of the world upon the tiger this year, it is our chance to showcase Malaysia’s commitment towards the target of 1,000 wild tigers,” said Dr Dionysius.

MYCAT (Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers) would also be launching a Year of the Tiger programme, a series of public awareness campaigns targeting schools and both the rural and urban public.

“We will be kicking things off at Dong Zen Temple (in Jenjarom, Selangor), where 1,000 faces will be painted to symbolise the 1,000 tigers we hope to have by the year 2020,” said Dr Dionysius.

The plan mainly identifies five factors threatening tigers – habitat loss and fragmentation; commercial poaching; human-tiger conflict; declining prey base; and science deficiency in the monitoring of tigers and their prey.

TRAFFIC senior communications officer Elizabeth John said commercial poaching was the “most urgent threat” to the tigers.

“Poaching has the capacity to do the most damage in the shortest period of time,” she said.

The tiger population has been decimated due to illegal hunting for their skins, bones and other body parts.

Those with information about illegal poaching or trading can make a report via the Tiger Crime Hotline at 019-3564194 019-3564194.

The Tiger Action Plan was formulated by the Government through the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, together with the Malaysian Nature Society, TRAFFIC South-East Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society-Malaysia Programme and WWF-Malaysia, using the collaborative platform of MYCAT.