Yayasan Sabah working with agencies on dead elephants

Yayasan Sabah Group will cooperate with the relevant departments in investigating the cause of death of the elephants at its concession area, said Yayasan Sabah director Tan Sri Datu Khalil Datu Jamalul.

He said the group would work closely with the relevant agencies to find the root cause of the dead elephants and to come up with corrective actions to avoid similar incidents in future.

“In fact, we are part of the Task Force comprising various government departments and agencies set up to investigate the incidents,” he said in a statement, here today.

Yesterday, State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Manjun was quoted as confirming that so far, 14 Borneo pygmy elephants had been found dead at the Rara Forest Reserve, about 139km from Tawau.

Masidi had said based on an initial examination of the elephant carcasses, the cause of death was likely to be poisoning.

Khalil also clarified that Syarikat Empayar Kejora Sdn Bhd was not a subsidiary logging company of the Group as purportedly reported in the dailies but a contractor contracted by the Group to undertake responsible logging activities within the area.

All logging contractors under the purview of the Group are stringently bound to the relevant Acts and Enactments including the Forest Enactment (1968), Wildlife Conservation Enactment (1997), Sabah Biodiversity Enactment (2000) and the Environmental Protection Enactment (2002), he said.

“We are also working closely with many government agencies and national as well as international bodies and NGOs such as the Royal Society of United Kingdom; WWF Malaysia, Face the Future, the Netherlands; IKEA, Sweden; Wetlands International, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Forest Research Centre

Sepilok, Academy Sciences Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Petronas, Kyoto University and many others for our forest management, environment, conservation and rehabilitation, environmental education and community outreach programmes,” he added.

Khalil said the group would continue to play a critical role in ensuring that the environment remains available for future generations.

On this note, he said the group would not rest on its laurels on issues concerning environmental sustainability.

"Therefore, the group will work together with other agencies to prevent unwanted incidence like these from happening again especially in our own concession area,” he said.