New laws have been set in Malaysia to protect their Asian elephants.
At a recent wildlife conference, a government spokesperson explained that whilst regions heavily relied on agriculture as well as thru company buy in to the products source in the regions, it was imperative that Malaysia moved to protect its wildlife.
This type of thinking was a seemingly incredible move and applauded by conservation and animal welfare groups.
The penalty for killing a Malaysian elephant will be a mandatory maximum 5 year sentence with financial penalties of around $12000USD as well.
An important part of the protection program is to encourage companies to educate and communicate to their staff that the killing of wildlife with habitat in the agriculture windows is unacceptable and not sanctioned.
With rumours that some companies may pay staff to "remove" nuisance wildlife, it will be interesting to see 1. The company official statements on this legislation and 2. The real actions taken by them as the grass roots level.
Next on the agenda is drafting similar legislation for fisheries, relating to the hunting of sharks in Malaysian waters in order to stem the shark fin trade.
Tap of the hat Malaysia
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