Death of Borneo elephants concerns WWF

WWF-Malaysia is concerned about the recent pygmy elephant deaths in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve.

WWF-Malaysia Executive Director and CEO Dato’ Dr Dionysius S K Sharma said WWF-Malaysia is providing support to the Sabah Wildlife Department and is part of the special taskforce that has been set up by the department to further investigate the matter.

“Our patrolling teams worked closely with the Department in unearthing the incident,” said Dr Dionysius.

According to reports, the deaths happened in areas where forests are being converted for plantations within the permanent forest reserves.

“The central forest landscape in Sabah needs to be protected totally from conversions. All conversion approvals need to be reviewed by the Sabah Forestry Department and assessed not purely from commercial but the endangered species and landscape ecology perspectives.

“Conversions result in fragmentation of the forests, which in turn results in loss of natural habitat for elephant herds, thus forcing them to find alternative food and space, putting humans and wildlife in direct conflict," Dr Dionysius added.

According to him, holistic long-term solutions need to be put in place to address and mitigate the problem.

He said that elephants need to be elevated to a ‘totally protected’ status under Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Conservation Enactment of Sabah, which has been recommended in the Sabah Wildlife Department’s Elephant Action Plan 2012-2016 but yet to be implemented.

“Frequent and large scale patrolling is critical to avoid such conflict from happening again. However, given the vast area that requires patrolling, it is a massive task for the Sabah Wildlife Department.

“More resources, including manpower, hardware and finances, should be allocated for the Department. The existing honorary wildlife warden programme of the Department is doing well and should be expanded,” he said.

The Borneo pygmy elephants are an endangered species. There are approximately 1,200 of these unique elephants in Sabah and all of Borneo.

Ten carcasses of the endangered elephants were found within the central forests of Sabah which is also a part of the Heart of Borneo. On Wednesday, another three more elephants were found in the state.