KUALA LUMPUR: On a normal day, the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sandakan, Sabah, would have tourists and schoolchildren coming in droves to see rescued Bornean sun bears, the smallest species of bears, and hiking through part of the Kabili-Sepilok forest complex on elevated walkways.
Since Malaysias government imposed a nationwide movement control order (MCO) in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19, the centre has fallen quiet. The only activities there now are of the bears roaming the forest enclosure, and the keepers going about feeding their charges and maintaining the centre.
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With only essential travel allowed, the countrys tourism has ground to a halt for over six weeks. This has greatly impacted eco-tourism sites like the Bornean sun bear centre, which is also a wildlife conservation and rehabilitation centre for rescued sun bears.
Large groups such as these tourists at one of the forest boardwalks at Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre will be a thing of the past for the foreseeable future, the centre says. (Photo: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre)
"We depend on tourism revenue for our operations. In 2019, we counted 84,496 visitors through our gates," its founder and chief executive officer Wong Siew Te told CNA.
The centre has 43 rescued bears and 30 staff members, who are divided into teams in-charge of taking care of the bears, education outreach and tourism. Since its founding in 2008, the centre has released seven rehabilitated bears back into Sabahs forests.
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Gibbon conservationist Mariani Ramli puts one of the juvenile black-handed gibbons under her care through the jungle gym at the Gibbon Conservation Society's rehabilitation centre in Pahang. This is where the rescued gibbons relearn to swing and move through their natural arboreal habitat. (Photo: Gibbon Conservation Society of Malaysia)
The Gibbon Conservation Society in Raub, Pahang, is also facing the same predicament. With an aim of rehabilitating the gibbons and releasing them back into the wild, the organisation had always depended on contributions and donations to fund its expenses.
READ: Gibbons' hope – The city girl who gave up all to save victims of pet trade
It used to take in volunteers, usually university students studying zoology, to help with preparing the gibbons feed, running data collection and helping with the gibbons learning enrichment.
Not anymore. Project leader Mariani Ramli said she had stopped taking student volunteers just prior to the MCO, which restricts both domestic and international travel.
“As it is, one of our four employees is stuck in Kedah, and cant return to the centre to help. We managed to get a local volunteer to help with the centres daily operations,” she said.
With the MCO disrupting the traditional means of funding for these private wildlife conservation efforts, they are now compelled to re-orientate and source new means of revenue to ensure the animals eventual return to the wild is not affected.
FUNDING DRIES UP
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre is cutting costs wherever it can, but there are fixed costs even though it is temporarily shut.
“It takes about RM120,000 a month to run the centre and to pay for the bears food and medicines, as well as staff salaries,” Wong said.
The centre relies on a local supplier, who sources vegetables from local farmers in another town. Wong said he would not consider switching to other suppliers who might be able to offer a cheaper price for now.
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre's Wong Siew Te. (Photo: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre)
“Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture. If I were to start looking for an alternative now, that would mean difficulties and problems up the supply chain. The supplier and farmers in turn would face problems too,” he said.
Along Peninsular Malaysias East Coast in Kemaman district, Terengganu, the Turtle Conservation Societys executive director and co-founder Dr Chen Pelf Nyok said she had never expected a pandemic to hit Malaysia.
Dr Chen Pelf Nyok with newly-hatched terrapins. (Photo: Dr Chen Pelf Nyok)
But the past nine years educating and working with the local community about conserving the river terrapin along the Kemaman river has borne fruit, she said. Previously, terrapin eggs were part of the locals diet, a threat to the population of the riverine turtle known as tuntung in Malay.
“Now they are the ones on hand to help with ensuring that the 700 terrapins hatched at the conservation centres incubator are cleaned and fed daily, until they are old enough to be released back into the rivers,” Dr Chen said.
READ: Isolated and short of supplies, Malaysia's indigenous groups depend on aid to ride out movement control order
Besides conservation, the Turtle Conversation Society also carries out education outreach programmes for both government students and home-schoolers to highlight the local fauna and ecosystem.
The centre derived about one-fifth of its operating budget from small eco-tourism activities, where tourists and visitors could visit the centre and enjoy firefly watching along the Cherating River. The rest came from donations, contributions and merchandising.
River terrapin hatchlings, or "tuntung", released by the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia (TCS) in 2019. (Photo: Facebook/Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia)
All that is gone now, hit by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting MCO.
Dr Chen explained that she could not be at the hatchery, as her home was more than 10km from the conservation centre. Instead, work is currently being carried out by a local, Wazel Mahad, 57, who spends about six to seven hours each day to clean the tanks, refill them with fresh water and also feed the turtles.
“This community-based conservation project was at the back of my mind when we started TCS. It was a long and difficult journey for nine years, but Im glad it happened, because it has paid off with the local participation,” said Dr Chen.
DONATION AND ADOPTION CAMPAIGNS
To ensure their continuous operations, the sun bear and river terrapin centres are ramping up promotional efforts for their "adopt an animal" programmes, besides soliciting donations online.
Donors for specific animals will receive certificates, gifts and updates on the recipient animals.
In the case of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, those interested could donate money to a “Share A Bear” campaign for RM300 (US$69) a year, or opt for the more personalised “My Bear” adoption for RM600 a month or RM7,200 a year.
“I am also writing everywhere to apply for grants. The only issue is that grants are tricky, there are not many organisations which provide that sort of funding and they are usually for a specific project and time frame,” said Wong.
He and his non-bearkeeping staff have turned to social media to drum up financial support.
“Im actually busier than before the pandemic,” he said, adding that he was scheduled to give a webinar for a US audience at 3am local time the next day.
Southern river terrapins are only found in Thailand, Cambodia and Peninsular Malaysia. (Photo: Facebook/Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia)
Similarly, the Turtle Conservation Society is also running an “Adopt A Terrapin” campaign, with the adoption fee helping to defray the costs of searching for and incubating the eggs for hatching and release later.
Bulk of the adoption fee will go to microchipping the turtles, Dr Chen explained. This provides another avenue of scientific research come nesting time and if the locals happened upon a turtle carcass.
Dr Chen is also working with the local womens community to produce and market local handicrafts such as terrapin-motif batik, batu seremban (five stones game) painted with turtles, tote bags and others.
A local community that the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia works with makes batu seremban (five stones game) with turtle-motif fabric and sell them online to raise funds during the MCO period. (Photo: Facebook/Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia)
“This doesnt just raise funds for the project, but also provides them with a way to earn a living during the MCO. Many of the men here earn day wages and are itinerant workers. With the MCO, theres no work coming in, so its a way to help the community as well,” she said.
READ: Where to lay my eggs? Endangered hawksbill turtles face shrinking nesting grounds in Melaka
With everyone working from home, Dr Chen has had to re-orientate herself from doing fieldwork for the moment to learning new skills and settling down to tackle paperwork concerning TCS.
“I will miss out on taking the turtles measurements and all this year, but its alright, weve already built up a large database from the previous years sampling. Luckily this MCO wasnt imposed during nesting season (usually mid-January to mid-March)” she said.
Meanwhile, Gibbon Conservation Society's Mariani and her team have not run any adoption campaigns, but instead are highlighting the individual gibbons on social media while soliciting for donations in the same post.
Mariani Ramli (left) and a helper preparing to feed the gibbons. (Photo: Gibbon Conservation Society of Malaysia)
“Weve cut down and are stretching everything as much as we can," she said.
Previously, the team had a permit letter to travel to the Selayang wholesale market to buy supplies for the gibbons. The market has a lot of variety and prices are cheaper.
Her colleague would drive 90 minutes from Raub to the Klang Valley, decked out in their personal protective equipment (PPE), purchase the fruits and vegetables needed and drive back to Raub again.
As an additional measure, Mariani and her staff also turned to home gardening, and occasionally foraging from the surrounding jungle to supplement their food supply. With the Selayang area now under an enhanced MCO, the centre is also sourcing from local farms.
Mariani Ramli teaches an infant to consume leaves and twigs, which constitute part of its natural diet in the wild. (Photo: Gibbon Conservation Society of Malaysia)
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