Good news for tigers from WWF

From the WWF Tesso Nilo Newsletter, May-June 2009:

Law Enforcement against Tiger Killing in Riau Made a Good Progress

Law enforcement process against tiger killing occurred in Indragiri Hilir District last February and now has shown positive progress. Two suspects who snared and killed three tigers finally were detained by the Judiciary Office of the district in 23 June. Long process of completing the investigation files over this case conducted by the civil investigator (known as PPNS) of the Nature Conservation Agency of Riau finally came to the end. Their investigation file has been accepted by Prosecution Office and therefore the prosecutors can officially detain the two suspects to be processed on the court trial.

Last February four tigers were killed in Indragiri Hilir District. One was killed by community as it attacked two farmers. Other three tigers were killed by poachers after straying into human settlement. Two suspect
poachers had even sold one piece of the three tiger’s skins when the PPNS from the Nature Conservation Authority of Riau came to their house to confiscate the evidences.

The scene where the three tigers trapped is actually inside an acacia concession associated with Asia Pulp and Paper group. The scene was a swamp area located relatively far from the capital of the district. The information on this tiger killing was first received by the Tiger Patrol Unit of the project which then made coordination with the BBKSDA Riau and encouraged them to take action. This tiger killing attracted many
attentions from media and even the Minister of Forestry made a statement on national newspaper that he urges police to investigate this tiger killing.

WWF-Indonesia’s Riau program helps and facilitates the civil investigators known as PPNS to file this case from the field into administration matters. Though long process of investigation and filing, the prosecutors finally accepted the file and detained the two suspects comprising of a father and a son. The two suspects were detained based on strong evidences that both are involved in the killing of the three tigers. During the
investigation, the two suspects admitted their act and therefore they break Conservation law number 5/1990 that bans everyone to trap, hurt, kill, keep, and trade endangered wildlife.

To build public opinion on law enforcement against this tiger killing case, WWF will shepherd the process through media monitoring in the hope that the court trial will be in favor of conservation effort. The verdict against this case is expected to give deterrent effect to other perpetrators.

Public Campaign for Law Enforcement against Wildlife Poaching

Wildlife killing is rising nowadays in Riau province. This condition is certainly upsetting and therefore requires public action. Wildlife conservation is everybody’s responsibility therefore public awareness on protection of wildlife and their habitat needs to be built. To commemorate environment day, a group of youth clubs with support from WWF Indonesia’s Riau Program started their campaign from 5 June to call support for their petition.

The petitions among others call on authorities to stop forest destruction and conduct spatial plan that contribute wisely to the people of Riau and conservation of wildlife, be consistent in implementing regulations in forestry sector, impose law against perpetrators of wildlife poaching and trade, take efforts to handle human-wildlife (especially elephant and tiger). The youth club made some ways to attract sympathy from public to in the efforts to gain support for the petition like holding performances of body painting in main roads, signing the support in a 100-m length banner, and distributing pamphlets and stickers to call for the support through on line number. Besides that, the youth club also paid visits to authority like the Governor of Riau, the Head of Riau Parliament, and Vice

Governor of Riau. As the result, the youth club got written support from these authorities.

The youth club did some performances to get public attention on their effort to get support over their petitions like body painting, distributing stickers and pamphlets. The youth club also opens on line support through sending short message service to the secretariat number besides collecting written support from related institutions. During two weeks of collecting the support, the total support gained reached about
1500 signers. This support will be delivered by the youth club to related authorities through face to face meeting which is planned to be set soon. With this meeting, it is expected that the youth club can convey their call to the government to take action over the petition. The youth club has been committed that they will do similar meeting with the institution to monitor commitment from the authority or at least to share update on periodical basis.

For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue
an Educational Sanctuary home
to more than 100 big cats
12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625
813.493.4564 fax 885.4457

http://www.BigCatRescue.org

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