Govt mulls amending Wildlife Conservation Act 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is studying to amend the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 by introducing mandatory jail sentences against individuals caught illegally hunting wildlife.
Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources Dr Xavier Jayakumar said his ministry would work with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) to improve the act to prosecute illegal hunters accordingly.
"By strengthening the act, enforcement could be boosted, we will make the amendments because it is understood that the existing act does not facilitate the enforcement process.
"This amendment may involve the addition of penalties to doubled from the previous, but what I see is that there are those who can pay so we must also include a prison sentence which is seen to be more effective in dealing with this issue," he said.
He said this at a media conference in conjunction with the Global Tiger Day Celebration organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Malaysia at the Tuanku Bainun Children's Creative Centre, here today.
The Global Tiger Day is celebrated on July 29 each year to foster awareness of the importance of tiger conservation to the world community.
According to Xavier, the ministry would also step up cooperation with authorities, such as the police and military to jointly assist non-governmental organisations (NGO), such as WWF in combating illegal wildlife hunting syndicates throughout the country.
He said operations conducted by Perhilitan had found various species of animals which were injured including tigers, tapirs and elephants, due to the wire snares installed by illegal hunters.
From 2014 to June, Perhilitan had destroyed over 2,890 wire snares in 479 operations.
Hence, he hoped that corporations would be able to help NGOs finance the projects to destroy the snares in the quest to save wildlife from extinction.
"I understand that WWF in collaboration with Perhilitan have carried out Project Stampede which consists of only 15 people to identify and destroy the trap areas.
"They need 50 more individuals to help them continue this project more widely and I encourage the corporate sector to assist them in successfully implementing this project and to go all out to eradicate illegal poaching," he added. — Bernama