The Star: Monkey Ban Reimposed

Sunday June 8, 2008

Ban on export of macaque reimposed

By HILARY CHIEW

PETALING JAYA: The Cabinet has reinstated the export ban on the protected long-tailed macaque, ending months of uncertainty about the fate of about 250,000 ‘urban’ monkeys that are in demand as exotic food in East Asia and in laboratories in the West.

Confirming that the Cabinet made the decision last month, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said:

“The decision was taken to reverse the earlier lifting of the ban after considering the arguments and views of the various groups. A Cabinet paper on how to tackle the human-macaque conflict, especially in the urban areas, was submitted and approved as well.

“An allocation of RM1.6mil has been made to Perhilitan (Department of Wildlife and National Parks) to resolve the conflict either by relocating or culling those problematic monkeys. Perhilitan will be presenting its action plan to the ministry next week.”

There had been fierce objections from animal rights and conservation groups when the ban was lifted last June. Citing the nuisance and danger posed by monkeys living in small pockets of forests in the cities, Douglas’ predecessor Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid had recommended the 23-year-old ban be lifted.

Azmi later conceded to the demands of critics and agreed to reinstate the ban but never got around to submitting the request to the Cabinet prior to the general election.

While the issue was in limbo, it is learnt that about 2,000 macaques were captured by a company that sold the export idea to Azmi. The monkeys were held at the exporter’s facility in Ulu Piah, Perak, pending shipment.

Douglas said Perhilitan had been instructed to look into the systematic release of the captured macaques back to the jungles.

Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Assocation (Roar) president N. Surendran, who had led the protest, welcomed the decision as the first step towards a more humane way of handling human-wildlife conflict.

“Besides relocation which could end up transferring the problem to another area, the authorities should consider sterilisation to control the population. Culling should be the last option and existing green spaces should be left alone as buffer zones between human settlement and wildlife habitat.

“Exporting the macaques should never be an option. Our wildlife should never be exploited for profit,” he added.

According to Wildlife Department’s statistics, one-third of the country's 742,000 long-tailed macaque in the country are found in city areas, including Kuala Lumpur.

In 1984, the Government banned the export of the macaque after their peninsula population dropped 25% between 1957 and 1975, when their trade was unregulated and the monkeys were routinely caught for export to exotic food kitchens in East Asia and animal-testing laboratories in the West.

End.

Note: N Surendran is also Petpositive's legal adviser.