Protect the Malayan Tiger and restore its habitat

Dear Friends,

I hope this report finds you with compassion in your heart and a desire to make a difference.

Committed to protecting endangered wildlife and their habitats, we embarked on a courageous journey in 2010 by engaging citizen conservationists from local and global communities. With your support, we have achieved remarkable progress over the years.

In 2015, after five years of dedicated protection efforts, we began witnessing the first signs of wildlife recovery, igniting our vision for reforestation. We established a small tree nursery and embarked on planting trees to revive a badly damaged land. This ambitious undertaking was made possible by the generosity of individuals and the steady commitment of local indigenous communities, who share our deep passion for preserving healthy ecosystems.

Encouraged by our progress, we secured funding in 2018 that allowed us to expand our reach and continue restoring larger areas. In 2021 a new corporate donor made a five-year pledge, promising much-desired stability and the means to pursue our vital mission of ecological restoration.

However, we now face an unprecedented challenge. An abrupt and premature termination of the pledged funding due to the donor’s own internal issues in February this year, has left our project personnel and expenses in a precarious lurch, one that threatens to undo much of the good we have accomplished.

In the past year, endangered wildlife has freely roamed across the landscape and the lives of local indigenous people whose livelihoods are intricately linked to the health of their environment have been transformed. Through our habitat restoration project, forty-four men and women have found a source of income and have experienced positive changes in their environment that have created a ripple effect of hope throughout their communities.

Even in the face of adversity, we have refused to give up. Since February, with the support of compassionate individuals like yourself, we have managed to care for 5,000 seedlings in our nursery and 6,000 trees that had been planted in the past few years across 160 hectares of restoration sites. A small team of workers monitor and tend these young trees, watering them during scorching heat and weeding after continuous rain, thus ensuring their growth and survival. Sadly, as a result of the funding withdrawal, we have had to downsize the nursery, release all but a few workers responsible for essential maintenance tasks and place the head of the project on unpaid leave.

I am immensely grateful for the generosity shown by those of you who have donated in the past year. Today, I come to you with an urgent appeal. Please continue to donate, no matter the amount, to help us sustain our mission. For the next six months we would require funds totaling RM120,000 (USD 26,000) for essential maintenance tasks. These funds will help us support the remaining workers, provide them with a modest income, and ensure the continued care and growth of the seedlings and saplings that represent our collective hope for a brighter future. It will enable me to re-strategize for the longer term while minimizing the suffering of these seeds of change for which I feel a deep sense of responsibility.

Your contribution will bring hope, restore livelihoods, and preserve the delicate balance of our precious ecosystems.

Thank you for your unwavering support, compassion, and dedication to protecting our fragile ecosystems and the magnificent tigers that call them home.

By Kae Kawanishi

Executive Director, WILD

Links:

• Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers
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A part of MYCAT’s work in the Sungai Yu Wildlife Corridor is bringing together different  local communities in an effort to protect wildlife, the critically endangered Malayan Tiger included. 

Hairiel is from a small town north of the Wildlife Corridor. Being from the area, he is cognizant of the importance of the Sungai Yu Wildlife Corridor and how local communities can make a positive impact. “Protecting the forest here is not just one person’s responsibility. Everyone needs to have the awareness and take care of it together,” he says. 

As a Field Assitant for MYCAT Hairiel's tasks include processing patrol data from the Community Rangers, assisting the habitat restoration team and going through images captured on the camera traps. This work gives him the unique opportunity to bond with the indigenous Bateq that he works alongside to support. “Once I was patrolling the forest and it rained heavily and the ranger and I got soaked,” he recalls. “Even though we were cold, we still chatted and laughed.” 

Hairiel is also able to observe wildlife in its natural habitat. “I was so excited when I saw an image of a tiger captured in one of the camera traps," he shares. I probably wouldn't have the chance to see local wildlife, otherwise.” His greatest hope is to see the Sungai Yu Ecological Corridor free of poaching and illegal logging.

The camaraderie and mutual respect that comes from different communities working together to protect this important swathe of forest makes the stand they take a particularly meaningful endeavour. “We need to take responsibility for our forest,” Hairiel asserts. This is our duty as inhabitants of the world.” 

The Year of the Tiger has been a prominent feature of my 24 years of conservation work in Malaysia. 

In 1998, during my first Year of the Tiger in Malaysia, I began my PhD research. Following the shocking discovery that a critical tiger conservation area had become devoid of tigers and their main prey species due to poaching, in 2010, my second Year of the Tiger, MYCAT launched CAT Walk. 

Neither I nor MYCAT’s partners knew how long it would take to recover the loss, if at all. Encouragingly, after several years of persistent anti-poaching surveillance walks guided by indigenous people and participated by concerned members of the public, CAT Walk’s citizen conservationists began to document the recovery of small mammals and large ground birds. This was followed by medium to large mammals, and then, to our delight, the forest’s top predators. That was six years ago. And while poaching has yet to be eradicated, the rate of finding snares has declined by 95%. 

This year is my third Year of the Tiger in Malaysia, and it has been my most rewarding of all. For the first time, elephants were found to have safely crossed the most vulnerable bottleneck in the ecological corridor that connects Peninsula Malaysia’s National Park (Taman Negara) with the largest area of forested land within the Malayan tiger’s landscape. 

Detractors told us that the corridor is a failure and that nothing will regrow on compacted land after the construction of the highway that now runs through the area. Despite this, MYCAT’s ecosystem conservation work continued. As a result of our pre-planting soil treatment and post-planting maintenance, we’ve had saplings grow up to 6 metres in two years; a safe and healthy forest is returning; and the large mammal assemblage found in the National Park is now found in adjacent forest reserves throughout the wildlife corridor. This is what successful people-driven conservation looks like.         

In comparison to other partner NGOs in tiger conservation, MYCAT is a lean operation. We employ only two to four full-time officers at a go and have 2% of WWF's financial capacity. We are able to make real impact on the ground because of the steadfast support of people like you.

To honour that contribution, this Year of the Tiger MYCAT hosted by-invitation field trips for selected long-term supporters to experience first-hand the regenerating forest where tigers have returned, and held closed-door talks for others. Such personal gatherings are the safest way for us to disclose detailed data of wildlife recovery in the corridor. To be able to share the sense of wellbeing of the very place that has been the focus of my work for over two decades with you is a privilege and has been immeasurably rewarding. 

You are making a difference.

Dear Global Givers,

As pandemic restrictions in Malaysia are almost entirely lifted, life is returning to a new sense of normalcy and residents are going back to their regular routines. 

This is good news. MYCAT activities are at full throttle: we have resumed our Citizen Action for Tigers (CAT) Walks and after a more than a two year hiatus, Sungai Yu Ecological Corridor has begun welcoming passionate and concerned members of the public to participate in citizen conservation efforts to protect the critically endangered Malayan tiger and this crucial tiger landscape.

To further strengthen protective human presence in this important wildlife corridor, a new Community Ranger outpost has also been erected at the entrance to the forest to provide around the clock protection. 

Data collected by MYCAT and the DWNP since CAT Walks began in 2010 show that snares are typically set up close to access roads for convenience. The construction of new roads for human activities has provided poachers with even more opportunity. The location of the new Community Ranger outpost was selected with this in mind. 

MYCAT’s Community Rangers have been able to observe movement in and out of the area day or night from this jungle fort and they have already registered a drop in the number of threats found in the area only a month after setting up base there. 

A total of 98 post have been set up by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) throughout Peninsular Malaysia. Our new outpost doubles the number of manned outposts in and around the Sungai Yu permanent forest reserve. 

MYCAT’s Community Rangers have taken to it with a great sense of ownership. A joint effort between MYCAT and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), it was built by local indigenous Bateq using mostly natural materials. Decorated to reflect the personalities of the Community Rangers posted there and flying the DWNP flag, local Bateq see it as a symbol of collective perseverance in the fight to protect their home and strengthen their roles as rightful guardians of the forest.

Much work remains to be done. Land use issues and illegal activities continue to threaten the corridor. With your support, MYCAT’s Community Rangers Program has grown in size and effort. Your generosity empowers them and the wider local Bateq community to face these and other emerging challenges, enabling them to protect their way of life and the Malayan tiger with whom they share their forest home. 

Dear global givers,

Your support of MYCAT and our efforts to protect Malayan tigers and their habitats couldn’t come at a more critical time. Malaysia clings to its remaining wild tigers by a thin thread. During the Fourth Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation held in January this year, Malaysia’s Prime Minister announced that Malaysia has fewer than 150 tigers remaining in the wild, the number based on the results of a three-year nationwide survey that concluded in 2020.

As part of MYCAT’s efforts to turn government policies into impactful real-world solutions, MYCAT, with your generous support, has been able to engage with various communities to safeguard Peninsula Malaysia’s most important wildlife corridor.

This includes empowering local indigenous Bateq to conduct anti-poaching patrols as Community Rangers. Funding provided by you has allowed MYCAT to run multiple capacity building exercises. As a result, the Community Rangers have shown tremendous improvements in data collection, searching threats, and species identification based on signs. The Community Rangers have continued to detect signs of recovering wildlife in this period.

In a recent debriefing session, we discussed strategies to improve protection based on the data on wildlife and threats collected in the past year. Besides providing MYCAT with valuable insight, these sessions foster greater ranger participation, help to identify project and personnel needs, and provide an open inclusive platform for sharing ideas and concerns.

The programme also has spillover effects, engendering greater awareness of the poaching problem within the larger Bateq community. In a recent incident, we were informed of two young Bateq who had encountered an ensnared kijang (the local term for muntjac; see top image) in a forest located away from our project site. The MYCAT team immediately coordinated with local wildlife authorities to mount an enforcement and release operation. Unfortunately, by the time the tranquilising team arrived the animal was gone, leaving only blood stains behind. The poacher had got there before us and six more snares were found nearby.

The grief that followed the discovery was echoed among the Bateq rangers. “This kijang was always there in our forest,” a Bateq ranger, Adi shared. “I am sad because it is no longer a part of it now.” As tiger prey species, the loss of this kijang and the presence of snares has a cumulative impact on Malaysia’s dwindling tiger population.

Hassan, one of the programme’s senior rangers, patrols the forest daily because of his inherent love for his forest home. Losing wild tigers would be a great tragedy as he and other rangers like him have grown up sharing the forest with local wildlife like the Malayan tiger.

“Acquiring the necessary skills needed to do this work (patrolling tiger habitats) is a requirement set by MYCAT,” Hassan said. “I thank MYCAT who have listened to our needs and given me and my fellow rangers a lot of training to enable us to gain those skills. It’s a lot to learn at the beginning,” he divulged, “But with the continuous support from MYCAT staff, I feel much more confident now than when I first joined the programme.”

The loss of this kijang also underlines the persistent and ever evolving poaching scourge. As a result, we have chosen to move one of our patrol teams out of our current project site into this newly threatened area. With additional support, our plan is to expand the forest and the wildlife under our protection without compromising the recovering wildlife that has been under our protection in our existing site.

We are indebted to global givers everywhere who have supported this programme and our Community Rangers in the fight to save the wild Malayan tiger.