Article: Wildlife under threat

Tuesday March 31, 2009

AT the rate of deforestation and habitat fragmentation in their state, Johoreans will have to brace for more human-wildlife conflicts.

The northern and eastern districts of Johor – Segamat, Mersing, and Kota Tinggi – can expect to experience more intrusions of elephants, in particular, into plantations and other farm land.

As forests are cleared. wild jumbos have to be relocated to other areas.

The southern state has witnessed a prolonged conflict with the pachyderm since the late 1980s as forests were cleared for human settlements and converted into agricultural land especially for oil palm plantations by the private sector as well as the Felda (Federal Land Development Agency) scheme.

The problem is to be expected as these forests are important wildlife habitats, judging from the three huge areas gazetted – the Endau-Kluang, Endau-Kota Tinggi and Segamat Wildlife Reserves (WR) – in 1933. Segamat WR has ceased to exist today.

The Department of Wildlife and National Park (Perhilitan) has translocated 99 elephants from this region since 1994. The displaced creatures were mostly relocated to Endau Rompin National Park and the Terengganu side of Taman Negara.

Its director of protected areas Zainudin Ab Shukor says between 1990 and 2000, RM6.5mil was spent for this exercise as the department was overwhelmed with complaints of elephant invasions into plantations.

“Displaced elephants were captured all over Johor but the most problematic areas were Labis, Segamat and Kota Tinggi,” he adds.

While the extent of deforestation is not immediately clear with government officials’ reluctance to provide information, the elephant translocation expenses within the last four years indicates the worsening situation. Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abd Rasid Samsudin says RM3mil was spent between 2005 and 2008.

And if unpublished wildlife survey results are to be believed, human-tiger conflict will emerge as yet another problem for this region. Preliminary findings suggest that the Endau-Kota Tinggi Wildlife Reserve and the adjacent forest reserves that encompasses Lenggor, Ulu Sedili and Panti are important tiger habitat.

Wildlife biologists say the government should stop paying lip service to biodiversity conservation as very soon the country’s majestic creatures like elephants, rhinoceros and tiger will end up in zoos or continue to be relocated into Taman Negara and Endau Rompin National Park which will give rise to another set of problems.

Territorial animals like tiger and elephant will be squeezed out of the over-populated forests into human settlements and plantation yet again. Isolated forests also affects gene-flow and in the long-run, populations disconnected from a bigger forest will indulge in in-breeding that increases the risk of extinction.

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This article was taken from: The Star Online: Lifestyle: Focus 31 March 2009