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Wildlife Conflicts outlined by PERHILITAN.
Surrounding
Human-wildlife conflict is a major problem in
forest and wildlife management during and
after project development. For example,
human-elephant conflict was the second
highest reported after the human-primate
conflict, where they caused damage to
agricultural crops, particularly in oil palm and
rubber plantations.
Habitat loss due to the shrinking forest is the
major factor that leads to human-wildlife
conflicts. Shortage of food sources in
shrinking forests may drive the wildlife to
nearby plantation and agricultural areas.
Notably, most forested zones are adjacent to
agricultural crops (e.g., oil palm).
Apart from agricultural crops, the
human-wildlife conflict also involved property
damage (e.g., settlements and orchards) and
possibly attacks on human beings. It is initially
compulsory to predict the wildlife populations
that potentially cause the human-wildlife
conflict before running wildlife monitoring
and wildlife conflict management (e.g.,
electric fencing).
Wildlife Monitoring and
Law Enforcement
Monitoring and patrolling within the
construction area and its surrounding forested
area are important for the following
objectives;
i. To prevent any invasion of locals and
poachers into the forest.
ii. To enforce the Wildlife Conservation Act
2010 (Act 716).
iii. To ensure the safety of wildlife inhabiting
the forest.
All these objectives are important for wildlife
conservation strategies, particularly for the
endangered, near-threatened, vulnerable, rare
and protected species, which are the main
conservation concern.
Enforcement activities include investigation
(based on reports), patrols and monitoring, an
inspection of premises, roadblock, and
ambush (based on reports). These
enforcement activities are routine works and
follow a standard procedure conducted and
outlined by PERHILITAN.
The enforcement activities within the forested
areas can strictly control over logging and
service roads (for construction), stopping and
GUIDANCE DOCUMENT FOR PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF WILDLIFE
MANAGEMENT PLAN (WMP) IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) 27
The enforcement activities within the forested
areas can strictly control over logging and
service roads (for construction), stopping and
minimising illegal hunting and wildlife
poaching. Furthermore, displaced wildlife (or
conflict) can also be minimised and less likely
to be hunted.
Chapter 4:
Evaluation of Impacts
Prediction of changes or alterations of
biological characteristics resulting from the
implementation of a proposed project is
compulsory for wildlife management or
rescue plan. Accurately predicting and
evaluating the impacts is important in
designing wildlife management and rescue
plan.
Accurate primary and secondary data
gathering is the basis for reliable prediction of
impacts. These impacts should be listed
according to the three development phases:
pre-construction, construction and operation.
Many considerations are required to produce
a WMP or rescue plan, including:
i. Recent data on diversity and distribution
of wildlife within the predicted impact
area (e.g., construction area and its
surroundings);
ii. Activities within the forested area (e.g.,
logging and encroachment);
iii. Land use change;
iv. Topography of the proposed site and its
surrounding;
v. Project description.
Identifying and evaluating potential impacts
and following mitigating measures is an
important issue in the WMP study and Rescue
Plan. The predicted impacts of the project on
the wildlife reported in the WMP report should
also be mentioned in WMP and rescue plan.
Site clearing, access road and project site
construction, and illegal hunting are among
main activities during pre-construction and
construction phase that lead to pollution,
sedimentation and habitat loss, significantly
impacting the wildlife diversity, distribution
and movements. The mitigation measures will
be explained in the next chapter (Chapter 5).