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(September 15, 2022) Perak intends to apply the elephant alarm fence system used in the state of Johor to resolve the issue of disturbances by wild animals in the state. However, according to the Executive Councillor for Health, Science, Environment and Green Technology, Mohd Akmal Kamaruddin, his side is also considering using similar technology from Thailand. “Regarding the alarm system that uses technology from Indonesia, I have included this matter in the Exco meeting and the results of the visit to ...

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(July 04, 2022) KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia should fast track setting up the Wildlife Crime Bureau under the police to tackle wildlife poaching and trafficking. The recent arrest of a Malaysian suspect in Thailand showed that illicit wildlife trading was still rampant in the country. Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia Programme country director Dr Mark Rayan Darmaraj said such a unit could be a game-changer for intelligence-gathering and swift prosecution. "I believe this unit, if established with ...

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(April 06, 2022) When he was a boy, scientist Dr Mark Rayan Darmaraj used to read books about tigers. In the books, the tigers, he recalls, are often portrayed as the "king of the jungle". "This for me - then and even now - means that tigers are the protectors of the forest and all the beings in it." he says.

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(March 07, 2022) In 2019, Malaysian conservationist Mark Rayan Darmaraj warned that the critically endangered Malayan tiger would be extinct by about this year if efforts to save it were not intensified. But while the pandemic has offered this subspecies – one of five remaining in the world – a brief respite from poaching, they are still only clinging on. A national survey concluded in 2020 estimated that there remain fewer than 150 wild tigers in Malaysia’s forests, where 3,000 once ro...

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(January 31, 2022) KUCHING: Better intelligence as well as effective laws and enforcement are needed to protect pangolins from trafficking, says a conservationist. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Malaysia Program Country Director Dr Mark Rayan Darmaraj said recent cases in Sarawak, which saw heavy fines imposed on offenders for illegally possessing pangolins and their scales, were a positive sign of successful prosecution and the state's commitment to tackling threats to wildlife.

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(January 26, 2022) KUALA LUMPUR: There were no wildlife poaching cases during Covid-19 pandemic last year thanks to movement restrictions and border control. The Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) said the number of wildlife smuggling also recorded a drop by 60 per cent in 2021, from 10 cases in 2020 to four last year. As for poaching cases, the department recorded 10 in 2020.

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(January 25, 2022) A statement by the Kelantan forestry department director yesterday that logging is good for tigers invoked public furore, and there have been subsequent misconceptions and debate on what constitutes good tiger habitat. The director was quoted as saying the research findings came from a researcher in Sarawak, but his statement has also been linked to a journal paper based on a study conducted almost 20 years ago by WWF-Malaysia in Kelantan itself. The findings in this paper have subseq...

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(December 24, 2021) PETALING JAYA: A wildlife expert has pointed to animals roaming in urban areas after escaping the floods as proof of habitat destruction wrought by humans. Mark Rayan Darmaraj, the Malaysian country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said forest clearing at the hands of developers had made the country’s natural environment less resilient to shocks. Speaking to FMT, he said: “Pristine wildlife habitats are not greatly impacted if these flooding events are not intense...

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(December 08, 2021) The Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia Programme (WCS Malaysia) congratulates the Royal Malaysia Police, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan), the Customs Department and other enforcement agencies for arresting 127 individuals, making RM31.86 million worth of seizures and destroying almost 300 animal traps under Op Bersepadu Khazanah this year. This was revealed by Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim ("OBK proves successful in addressing wil...

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(December 04, 2021) The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Malaysia Program congratulates the Royal Malaysian Police, Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan), Royal Malaysian Customs Department and other enforcement agencies for the arrest of 350 individuals, making RM36.11mil worth of seizures and destroying 1,425 animal traps under Operasi Bersepadu Khazanah carried out nationwide since September 2019.

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