Sabah won’t cull its wildlife, says state minister
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s wildlife such as the Borneo elephant will never be culled despite the increase in the cases of human-wildlife conflict in the state, said state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
He said Sabah has sufficient forests to provide adequate habitat for the animals.
He, however, acknowledged that the existing forest habitat for these animals were too fragmented and corridors connecting these areas needed to be planned.
“We have enough forest reserves to accommodate these animals and for them to multiply. It is now a question of allowing them movement between these areas,” he told The Star yesterday amid a warning that human-wildlife conflicts were on the increase.
Masidi said one of the main obstacles to these “wildlife corridors” connecting the fragmented forests was that much of the land needed was now privately-owned and had to be acquired through various private initiatives such as the Borneo Conservation Trust.
On Saturday, Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said the department had detected an increasing number of cases of human-elephant conflicts.
He said while nearly half of the state’s permanent forest cover had been retained, much of these jungle areas were broken up by agriculture without corridors linking them leading to the conflict between humans and wildlife.
Laurentius said among the latest human-wildlife conflict was an incident in December last year when an elephant strayed from the Tangkulap Forest Reserve into a nearby oil palm plantation where it damaged a water tank and workers’ quarters.
Upon reaching the area, wildlife personnel realised that it was the same pachyderm that had been captured from Beluran and translocated to the Tangkulap Forest Reserve.
Laurentius said the elephant’s actions was not common among these creatures but had been increasing over the years.
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