Indochinese Syndicates Poach M'sian Forests - WWF

GERIK (Perik, Malaysia), March 22 (Bernama) -- The World Wildlife Fund Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) has claimed that Indochinese syndicates might have intruded into the country's forests to poach for wildlife, especially tigers. WWF-Malaysia executive director Dr Dionysius Sharma said signs of trespassing were found based on the discovery of camps, as well as hunting remains by the organisation in its survey. "Laos, Cambodia and maybe Vietnam, have experienced the extinction of tigers due to illegal hunting. "It is alarming that Indochinese syndicates are flooding our very own forests to extract our precious resources like agarwood and wildlife, such as tigers," he said. Sharma was speaking to reporters after the launching ceremony of a collaboration programme for the conservation of tigers between Maybank Foundation and WWF-Malaysia at the Belum Rainforest Resort here Monday. Malaysia's Perak state ruler (Sultan of Perak), Sultan Nazrin Shah, who is patron of WWF-Malaysia also witnessed the ceremony. Sharma hoped the authorities and agencies responsible would carry out frequent patrols to put the brakes on the syndicates and ensure tigers here would not go extinct. "What we have been informed is that camps were found but the poachers have yet to be caught. "In the last few months, at least four grown-up tigers died from poaching, conflict and road accident," he said, adding there were about 3,000 tigers in 1950 while in 2014, there were only about 250 to 340 tigers. On the collaboration between WWF-Malaysia and Maybank Foundation, he said it targeted to increase the number of adult tigers in the Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex to more than 40, as compared to more than 37 currently. Meanwhile, Maybank chairman Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor said for the programme, the bank allocated US$1.73 million (RM7 million) to carry out various conservation programmes for four years and for the first year alone, US$296,607 (RM1.2 million) was spent.(US$1=RM4.04) -- BERNAMA