A fifty-year brief analysis of nature conservation in Malaysia and pointers for future approaches

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• Dr John Payne, Bringing Back Our Rare Animals (BORA)
• Wednesday 27 November 2024, 12:00-13:00
• Main Seminar Room, David Attenborough Building, New Museums Site. Pembroke Street. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3QZ GB.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Diane Lister.

After almost fifty years as a nature conservation practitioner in Malaysia, I see little need for further studies or technical data. Other than the baleful influence of governmental bureaucracy, “The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer”. Habitat loss, deforestation, fragmentation, poaching, lack of public awareness, lack of funds and climate change are all “givens” that we have to live with. The answer to be faced is that all endangered species are on an inevitable trajectory to extinction, so targeted, species-specific management interventions will be needed to recover and sustain demographically viable populations. For many reasons interventions do not happen, not least because the late twentieth century model of powerful governments, IUCN and mainstream NGOs does not allow small groups of passionate, experienced and competent people to self-organise and decide what to do based on objective analysis. But even small groups are subject to a quintet of human cognitive biases that can be summarised as shifting baseline, risk aversion and us-and-them, and subservience to fashions and to opinions. The Hairy rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) will represent the first large mammal genus extinction in the 21st century for those reasons. Poaching and habitat loss ceased to be relevant for this species more than a century ago.

The challenges faced and lessons after five years garnered by a small NGO in Malaysia (Borneo Rhino Alliance, BORA ; www.bringingbackourrareanimals.org) are presented. Despite a perception that endangered large animals are being taken care of by governments and mainstream NGOs, that is not so, because prevailing interventions are based largely on fashions and opinions. BORA ’s approach to recovery of four endangered species and sub-species (Bornean orangutan, Bornean elephant, Bornean banteng and Malayan seladang) is by boosting the availability and productivity of key food plants and essential minerals in circumscribed sub-optimal areas, thereby bringing local animal population density and demography back to pre-Anthropocene, optimum habitat levels.

This talk is part of the CCI Conservation Seminar Series 2024/2025 series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• CCI Conservation Seminar Series 2024/2025
• Main Seminar Room, David Attenborough Building, New Museums Site. Pembroke Street. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3QZ GB

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