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Malaysians don’t care about wildlife and marine conservation

(these are my own words….comes from my heart…Lets discuss…)

Question : Is it true that most Malaysian can’t be bothered on wildlife or marine conservation?
Answer : I’m ashamed to say Yes. I totally agree with this statement. It may sound a bit harsh,but from my point of view, I find that in Malaysia today the survival of wildlife often takes second place to human activity.

I bet if a survey is conducted in the streets very few will even know what type of conservation are taking place here, and what kind of animals are endangered.One example I take, the fact that some hotels still shark fin in their menus says it all.Even the people awareness is so low, I bet even some of my friends would laugh at me if I suddenly brought up this wildlife and marine conservation. Yup, It contradicts with my passion with F1, (yeah, you might want to argue with me, but hey that’s not the point)

proof of malaysian -ve mentality :-
1) The rainforest are not well protected. Protected status in Malaysia (also in Indonesia and Thailand) which seeks to curb deliberate killing of tapirs but does not address the issue of habitat loss, has had limited effect in reviving or maintaining the population. Less have been done for this(remember the Bakun Dam, yeah god knows what’s happening now or will happen when its ever completed)

2) Selfish. Does saving these endangered species and taking necessary actions for those who are on the brink of extinction means anything to you? No? Yup, most Malaysians will say no.
3) Lack or Awareness. I sure bet you can’t be bothered(at least if you are a Malaysian) why? Because we human being, only tend to appreciate something when we finally lose it.

4) People like laughing at other people. I bet even some of my friends/or u guys would laugh at me if I suddenly brought up this wildlife and marine conservation thingy. Yup, It contradicts with my passion with F1, (yeah, you might want to argue with me, but hey that’s not the point)

5) Illegal logging. Surprisingly it is still happening despite all new radio/satellite/tech. Common, this is 2009 not 20 or 30 years ago. We have satellites, we have GPS we have a lot of new savvy stuff. I speak from my own experience. I hope those people staying at nice bungalow(rumah pesara kerajaan did well when their were in duty, if not they are responsible to their grandchildren). The saddest thing is even the people in charge take bribes + the state owning the land puts a blink eye. Why is this happening? Some say it’s the Sultans fault for selling/giving the Green Light to illegal loggers. But how far this is true has yet to be proof by anyone. Why? Because people don’t care. (or very few like me). That’s why nothing is done.

6) My Experience – Illegal logging case - I would like to highlight one of my experience. The story is set in Pahang in small town. There’s this housing area surrounded with forest. One fine day, someone decided to clear some parts of the woods to make a golf range. (can you imagine a golf range in the middle of nowhere, this is not a tourist spot or what) Ok, that fine. Then the golf course finish. But I notice they cleared more then the golf course. Rumors say that someone had been doing illegal logging. But can you imagine just in front of your nose. (I cant imagine those near The National Park in Gunung Tahan) I say those illegal loggers deserve to be hanged till death…….why are they always happening? who gave them the licenses? Why is Pahang declared bankrupts a few years ago, yet it has the most timber in peninsular Malaysia. Somebody please knock some senses in my head. Not to mention also among the highest rate of illegal logging. I can imagine if this were1960 or even 1970 where technology was low. But for a year 2009, I don’t believe these issues can’t be solved/avoided.

7) 1900-1950-2000-2050-2000 – Can you imagine the size of our rainforest/natural habitat in Malaysia? Unless something drastically is been done, I bet we will not have what we have today.

From my research I found that
* 14% of Malaysia’s mammals are listed by The World Conservation Union (IUCN) as endangered!
* 30 species of turtle ever discovered, only 7 are left. I bet in 10years they will even be extinct
* Less than 1,500 Borneo Pygmy elephants are found in the world.
* It is estimated that there are less than 20 Sumatran rhinoceros left in Borneo. Can you imagine 20?
* The Bornean species of orangutan is highly endangered, and the Sumatran species is critically endangered, according to the IUCN Red List of mammals, and both are listed on Appendix I of CITES.
* The dugong is even listed as extinct(yup we saw then once)
* The Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus) is also categories as near extinct. So better go to the zoo and watch it for the last time* The

WHAT CAN BE DONE? (this is my own words, I didn’t copy from anywhere, feel free to quote me)
-ban all restaurant selling shark fin
-stop consuming shark fins
-maximum fine for those progressing part of endangered species
-no more Logging anymore in Malaysia, it’s not that we don’t have enough land for development…build apartments instead of bungalows…(leave if for the sake of the ecology, coming generations, global warming, and also tourism)
-no more illegal turtle/shark hunting
-maximum penalty for those capture hunting near extinct animals
-reward for those saving/preserve/report trapped/report illegal poaching of endangered animals
-promote preserve marine life in all scuba diving schools
-maximum penalty/hang those illegal logging people(put a size, like more then 1hecta or anything), those involve in bribe have to be punished as well(investigate all of them!)
-those brought to court for above doings (make them work with wildlife conservation movements for the rest of their lives, as a lesson to all, + not many are willing to do this, even me myself, I still prefer to be an Aviator)
I asked myself these questions :-

1) Is it too much for me to ask?

2)What can be done to promote awareness among Malaysian specifically, and among people in the world in generally?

3) What do the Illegal loggers get in Malaysia? Who are they?

4) Why are people too selfish and greedy and never think about nature? What good is it to someone to be Muslim(sorry for the generalization), yet has so ignorance to nature till he/she would do anything for greed of money.

5) Who are illegal hunters/poachers? Who buys their product? Where do they smuggle their stuff(like rhino/elephant tusk etc)

6) Why are some people just above the law? I find it amazing. Some people can not even be investigated(sorry again for my random accusation)

5) I’m I the only one?

so, let’s support wildlife and marine conservation…..for generations to come….at least be aware of it….there’s so much that we can do but ignorance is bliss …feel free to comment

cheers…..

Posted in: Marine conservation, Wildlife conservation

Tags: endangered turtle, endangered wildlife and marine, extinct animals, illegal logging in malaysia, malaysia lack of conservation awareness, malaysia wildlife conservation activity, malaysians ignorence on wildlife and marine conservation, Marine conservation, Wildlife and Marine conservation, Wildlife and marine conservation in malaysia, Wildlife conservation, wwf malaysia

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 4:07 am and is filed under Marine conservation, Wildlife conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.