(MY) ban parks resorts from owning wild animals and orang utan extinction

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Malaysiakini news on line

 

Ban parks, resorts from owning wild animals: SAM

 

Oct 13, 05 5:13pm

 

Environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) today called for a total ban

on ownership of wildlife by holiday resorts and entertainment parks.

 

Its president SM Mohd Idris said that wild animal performances at these

venues were not educational, but instead, demeaned the animals involved and

portrayed the ignorance of the spectators.

 

" Often the public is unaware of what goes on behind the scene during the

training of these animals. For example, it is well documented that

performing elephants are initially abused and tormented to break its

spirit, " he said in a statement.

 

Another matter of concern was whether resorts and parks have the know-how

and the necessary facilities to ensure the many complex needs of the animals

are met, said Idris.

 

As such, he stressed that the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry

should immediately ban the ownership of wildlife by these establishment, as

their sole purpose was making a profit.

 

Punish smugglers

 

On a related matter, SAM also urged the authorities to take stern action

against those found to be illegal possessing or were involved in the

smuggling of seven Sumatran orangutans.

 

" Punishing them with harsh penalties in accordance to the crime committed

will be a deterrent to resort and entertainment park owners hoping to

illegally acquire wildlife, " he said.

 

Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) announced last Friday

that the DNA profiling of 58 orangutans in Peninsula Malaysia revealed that

seven Sumatran orangutans were brought into the country without legal

documentation.

 

Commercial trade in orangutans violates the Convention of International

Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which took

effect in 1975.

 

Malaysiakini news on line

Industry denies fuelling orang-utan extinction

 

Oct 13, 05 7:51am

 

Malaysia's palm oil industry denied Thursday accusations it was driving

orang-utans towards extinction.

 

Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth last month said demand for

palm oil, which is widely used in processed foods, could cause Asia's only

great ape to be wiped out within 12 years unless there was urgent

intervention in the palm oil trade.

 

The Malaysian Palm Oil Association, Malaysian Palm Oil Board and Malaysian

Palm Oil Promotion Council denied the charges, saying palm oil was a

strategic, well-planned agricultural industry which supported the

preservation of wildlife including the orang-utan.

 

" These allegations are not well founded and contain a number of factual

inaccuracies, " they said in a joint statement to the national Bernama news

agency.

 

" The industry is far better regulated and the orang-utan far better

protected than is suggested in the report, " they said adding that the

industry often preserved jungle reserves and wildlife sanctuaries as part of

efforts to maintain the existing biodiversity found in plantations.

 

A recent survey showed that thousands of orang-utans remained in and around

the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in east Sabah state on Borneo island,

they added.

 

5,000 perish every year

 

In a report which Friends of the Earth dubbed the " Oil for Ape Scandal " , the

environmental group said wildlife centres in Indonesia were over-run with

orphaned baby orang-utans that had been rescued from forests being cleared

to make way for new plantations.

 

" Almost 90 percent of the orang-utan's habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia has

now been destroyed. Some experts estimate that 5,000 orang-utan perish as a

result every year, " it said.

 

" Oil-palm plantations have now become the primary cause of the orang-utans'

decline, wiping out its rainforest home in Borneo and Sumatra. "

 

Palm oil is found in one in 10 products on supermarket shelves, including

bread, crisps and cereals as well as lipstick and soap, it said.

 

The red-haired apes, close kin to humans, are found only on Borneo, which is

shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, and on the Indonesian island of

Sumatra.

 

Their numbers have dwindled to less than 60,000 from a population that once

spanned Southeast Asia.

 

As well as forest clearing, they are threatened by commercial logging,

hunting and poaching for the bush meat and pet trades and forest fires.

 

- AFP