Category: BSBCC, conservation, sanctuary | Date: Nov 28 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

After the successful fund raising event “Bear Necessities” on Nov 14 two weeks ago, we can finally move forward to start building our first phase of the construction: A brand new bear house with 24 bear dens and 4 forest enclosures where the captive sun bears can spend all day playing, climbing, and resting in a natural surrounding.

At the moment, our designer cum one of our architect in the project is finalizing the design and gets the final paper works for the construction. We hope the construction can start early next year and the construction will take up to six months to complete. At the same time, we will keep fund raise for Phase 2 and Phase 3. And, hopefully, yes hopefully-lots of hope and hard words, we can manage to raise the entire fund we needed to set up the BSBCC.

 Below is an article from Ian Hall, our designer, architect, and a good friend, on BSBCC which he wrote few months ago. It gives you the idea of what our plan is and hopes for the sun bears.

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Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Above is a concept design image for a sun bear conservation centre proposed adjacent to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary at Sandakan in Sabah.

Juvenile sun bears are undeniably cute and the adults are very handsome. Fully grown they would be a little above my knee in height, although rearing on hind legs they can be much more intimidating. Regrettably I have only seen them behind bars. The closest I have come to a wild sun bear was when I heard one raiding the kitchen during the night at Agathis Camp in Maliau Basin.

Sun bears are adaptable animals but unfortunately their habit of diversifying into convenience food often brings them into conflict with humans. Humans are also known to trap bears without provocation on the spurious grounds that bear body parts have medicinal properties. Also the fact that young bears are cute makes them popular in the illegal pet trade.

The sun bear’s main handicap to their conservation however, is their ecological position as an apex predator. The effect of this is that they live at very low densities. In the rainforest of Sabah, my friend Siew Te Wong estimates that they occur at the rate of approximately one bear to ten square kilometers. You do not have to chop down a lot of rainforest to make a big relative dent on the sun bear population.

Wong estimates that there may be 10,000 sun bears in their home range across Southeast Asia. To put this in perspective the estimated orang-utan population is approximately 50,000 with 41,000 of these in Borneo. Most people are familiar with orang utans, but the sun bear remains the least known of the eight species of bear and certainly attracts much less attention than their anthropomorphic red hairy neighbours.

The Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) will be the first of it’s kind in Malaysia and is being set up in partnership with the Sabah State Wildlife and State Forestry Departments. It’s long term goal is to raise the profile and support for sun bear conservation. The first and most pressing objective however is to provide better welfare for sun bears currently being held in captivity in Sabah.

There are 9 bears in Sepilok at the moment and several more distributed across Sabah. Most of these animals have either been confiscated by or been deposited with the Wildlife Department. They are held in small cages with no access to outside spaces.

The brief of BSBCC is to provide individual night time denning for 36 bears in two phases. There will be additional cages for quarantine, treatment and birthing. A vital facility to the well being of the bears is to provide every animal with controlled access to primary forest during daytime. The total area of forest pens will be about 2 hectares and bears will be prevented from escaping using fences and hot-wires. The Forestry Department has approved a part of the Sepilok Forest Reserve to be used for this purpose and the Wildlife Department has given the go ahead to adapt an enclosure formerly designed to contain Sumatran Rhinoceros.

The final component of the brief is to provide staff facilities plus a shop and visitor centre. Tired of stuffy ‘nature interpretation galleries’, the Arkitrek concept is interpretive information presented as a walk from the built environment into the forest. The walk is designed to be accessible to everyone and culminates in an observation gallery which is part seminar space, part interpretive display and part pavilion in the forest from where sun bears can be observed in their natural environment.

http://arkitrek.com/sunbear/

7 responses so far

Category: poaching | Date: Nov 23 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

It makes me angry, very angry indeed to read news like this: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Frontpage/2409167/Article/index_html

I hate poachers! I hate them! I hate this kind of people who kill wildlife for profits.

Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah do not have a long culture of hunting by the local native people. In addition, the relative political and economy stability in Malaysia, relatively compare to other Southeast Asian countries except Singapore, make the local people here do not need to depend on wildlife as food. This is why I always consider Malaysia as the last strong hold of SE Asian wildlife.

It seems like we are loosing the war to protect our precious wildlife. Loosing the war to handful of poachers? How can these possibles?

Yes, it is possible if we continue have a weak wildlife laws to protect our wildlife. How weak is weak? Read the news on November 23^rd:

 “In one case in Terengganu, a poacher caught with 52 snares was fined RM1,000 (USD285) by the courts.”

“The poacher in Terengganu received a six-month jail sentence, while another in Perak was fined RM900 (USD257) by the court.”

“Five people in Johor were compounded RM260 (USD75) each for setting snares.”

Any one see the problem here? I do.

We need your help to sign a petition that urge the government of Malaysia to strengthen the wildlife law to protect the wildlife in this country. Please read  Please read: http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/10/25/we-need-your-help-to-protect-wildlife-in-malaysia/.

2 responses so far

Category: poaching | Date: Nov 23 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Another sad news from today’s paper:

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NST Online » Frontpage

2008/11/23

A baby elephant caught in a snare laid down to trap a tiger

War on snares continues: Zero-tolerance

POACHERS have been hard at work and they’ve been at it in areas long considered safe havens.

Wire snares used by poachers

Misliah Mohd Basir says 500 snares were cleared in the Taman Negara National Park early this month

In a single operation early this month, Wildlife and National Parks Department enforcement officers cleared a staggering 500 snares from the Taman Negara national park.

This was the result of a thorough sweep of the 4,343ha park, said deputy-director general I Misliah Mohd Basir.

She said the department believed the snares were set by foreign poachers who had trespassed into the protected area in search of agarwood.

While the fragrant wood from the tree was the main target, these poachers would use the opportunity to trap, and later sell, wildlife caught in their snares.
Thousands of other snares have also been cleared in forested areas around Peninsular Malaysia, in 141 operations this year.

Only a handful can be brought to court — if these poachers are caught in the act or in possession of snares.

In one case in Terengganu, a poacher caught with 52 snares was fined RM1,000 by the courts.

Three other cases involving poachers with a total of 50 snares are still being heard.

Last year, six cases were compounded or brought to court — three in Perak, and one each in Terengganu, Pahang and Johor.

The poacher in Terengganu received a six-month jail sentence, while another in Perak was fined RM900 by the court.

Five people in Johor were compounded RM260 each for setting snares.

The remaining cases are still being heard in court and involve 65 snares in all.

Snares not only trap indiscriminately, they often leave some wildlife, like tigers, with terrible wounds that make them too slow to hunt prey.

This forces the injured animal to turn to cattle and humans instead, increasing incidence of conflict.

The department is stepping up efforts to clear snares, says Misliah and carries out operations at least twice or three times a month.

The Johor National Parks Corporation is also focusing on this area.

It is working with plantation owners and the state Forestry Department to detect and remove snares fringing the Endau-Rompin Johor National Park and forest reserves.

Surveys completed in October showed that most snares were outside the park boundaries.

Corporation director Abu Bakar Mohamed Salleh said discussions had been held with the 244-strong security unit of the Kulim Plantation located near the park and that they were willing to be trained to spot snares.

The corporation will also be getting a helping hand from the state Forestry Department senior staff who will take part in a training exercise to look at effective patrolling techniques and checkpoint systems used outside Malaysia.

A specially-designed patrolling and auditing system will soon be put in place and it will be GIS (Geographic Information Systems)-enabled to make it easier to do research.

“We don’t have any jurisdiction outside the park but we know that poachers come in to the park from the fringes,” said Abu Bakar

“With the help of the plantation, and forestry staff, we’ve cleared 92 wire snares so far but we will not rest. We have zero-tolerance for snares.”

addthis_pub = ‘nstonline’;

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Category: BSBCC | Date: Nov 19 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Special thanks to Life in Borneo for this report on our fundraising event last Friday:

http://lifeinborneo.com/2008/11/20/bsbcc-bear-necessities-fundraiser-event/

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BSBCC ‘Bear Necessities’ Fundraiser Event

Posted by Xander on November 20th, 2008 in Events, Wildlife

Friday, November 14th 2008 marks a historical and monumental day in which the first major collaboration between conservationists, several corporate companies and the government took place. The BSBCC (Borneo Sun Bears Conservation Center) Fundraiser Event was held at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa at 6.30 pm and it was attended by the Chief Minister of Sabah, Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun and Kota Kinabalu Mayor Datuk Iliyas Ibrahim.

It was a night equivalent of the Grammys night where all the distinguished guests and the socialites from all over Malaysia graced the event with their presence. The stage was set in an extravagant and picturesque manner identical to the forests of Borneo and the ambiance imbued throughout the grand ballroom was unlike any other.

An event as opulent as this would not be complete without the participation of celebrities, musicians and artistes. The hosts for the evening was television personality Daphne Iking, and actor/playwright/comedian Jit Murad. Also hosting was talented actresses Ida Nerina, Joanna Bessey, and Lina Teoh (Miss Malaysia World 1998 Winner, Miss World 1998 2nd Runner Up). Seeing these glamorous and talented people gracing the stage that night was indescribable and  they made the whole event inordinate and ostentatious as it already were.

Daphne Iking and Jit Murad

Ida Narina

Lina Teo

Joanna Bessey

The show would not be complete without the talented and multifarious assortment of musicians that came on stage on that night. They started the evening with a performance by Amir Yussof, Rafique Rashid and Badar. They sang a song titled “Calling On You” which was specially written by Amir, a song beautifully composed for the Sun Bears. Rafique and Badar was also joined later by Albert Sirimal to perform a wonderful song called “House in Pooh’s Corner”.

Amie Yussof

Rafique Rashid, Amir Yussof, Albert Sirimal and Badar

Albert Sirimal

Jit Murad

The night didn’t end with there, more performances ensued the whole night including musicians like Roger Wang which did an acoustic piece of the song “Imagine” by John Lennon. One song which took the crowd into a very jovial mood was a ”re-write” version of the famous tune ‘Bear Necessities’ which was performed by Rafique Rashid and Roger Wang. All of the musicians that night was simply ingenious, exquisite and exceptional to say the least.

Roger Wang

Rafique Rashid and Roger Wang

Also included as the highlights of the night, special auctions was held for the guests. Items included art pieces from exceptional and prominent local artists such as Mariana Musa, Wong Siew Lee, Wolf Sungmanitu Peters, Cede Prudente, Tony Gonzales, and Sarah Lim. Most art pieces such as the sculpture named ‘Obama’ from Wolf Sungmanitu Peters started the bids at MYR 1500 onwards. The highest bid made that night was Sarah Lim’s painting titled “Wake Up Call” which was around at MYR 40,000+.

All the proceeds that night including the auctions would go to the construction and maintenance of the BSBCC which will be situated at Sepilok. An infrastructure dedicated to keeping and studying the endangered Sun Bears, in which Borneo is its last hope for survival due to the fact that all over the region of South East Asia, their numbers are in fast decline.

Wong Siew Te, which is also known by some as the ‘Sun Bear Man’ took the stage and told tales of Cerah, a Sun Bear which is one of the bears under his care. Cerah means ‘bright’ in the Malaysian language. Executive Director of LEAP, Cynthia Ong also came on stage to show a planned infrastructure for the sun bears which is located near the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center.

Wong Siew Te

Cynthia Ong

The MoU on BSBCC was signed by Laurentius Ambu of the Sabah Wildlife Department, Datuk Sam Mannan of Sabah Forestry Department and LEAP by Cynthia Ong and was witnessed by YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman. In his speech, he also announced a government match of one to one on total donations.

YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman

It is a milestone event in conservation history for it is the first time such a major collaboration ever took place in Malaysia. An estimate of MYR 1.3 million was raised that night towards this project and it shows that cooperation between the conservationists, large corporate companies and the government is not only possible but also can be very overwhelmingly successful.

A night of elegance, cheers and jovial ambiance within a spectacular event all for a very important cause - the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center. With such a monumental event, it was also gracefully ended as all the artistes and musicians took center stage and sang, ‘Conviction of the Heart’.

Posted by Xander on November 20th, 2008 in Events, Wildlife

Friday, November 14th 2008 marks a historical and monumental day in which the first major collaboration between conservationists, several corporate companies and the government took place. The BSBCC (Borneo Sun Bears Conservation Center) Fundraiser Event was held at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa at 6.30 pm and it was attended by the Chief Minister of Sabah, Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun and Kota Kinabalu Mayor Datuk Iliyas Ibrahim.

Special thanks to Wong Siew Te, Cynthia Ong and Amir Yussof for having the LifeInBorneo.com crew be part of this prestigious event.

Photos by Eshark and Zie

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2 responses so far

Category: poaching | Date: Nov 18 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081118-owls-lizards.htmlStefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News

November 18, 2008

More than 7,000 live monitor lizards, almost 900 owls—plucked and plastic wrapped for easy cooking—and other wild animals were seized in two raids in a single week by Malaysian officials earlier this month. Experts on illegal wildlife trade expressed astonishment at the huge number of rare owls seized.

Some of the 900 owls seized in a November 4, 2008, raid in Malaysia are shown as they were found, plucked and plastic wrapped—signs they were intended as food.

The owl raid was followed three days later by a seizure that yielded 7,000 live monitor lizards. The sizes of both hauls indicate that illegal-wildlife traders in Southeast Asia are becoming more organized, experts say.

Photograph by Chris Shepherd/TRAFFIC
“It’s the first time we’ve ever seen a big shipment like this of owls,” said Chris Shepherd, a senior program officer for the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

The scale of both hauls indicates that Asian wildlife smuggling is growing more sophisticated, Shepherd said. “Shipments this size show that the trade is becoming more and more organized by syndicates, rather than just opportunistic individuals trying to make a buck off a few animals,” said Shepherd, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Oven-Ready Owls

The first of the two raids—carried out by the country’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks—took place on November 4 in the town of Muar on the southern tip of Malaysia.

In a freezer and storage room, agents found 796 barn owls, 95 spotted wood-owls, 14 buffy fish-owls, 8 barred eagle-owls, and 4 brown wood-owls.

The owls, smaller than chickens, had been frozen. Their feathers had been removed, but their heads and feet were intact—a sign that the owls were to be sold as food.

“I’ve heard of owls being used for superstition and in traditional medicine, but I’ve never heard of anybody eating them,” said Colin Poole, director of the Asia program for the Wildlife Conservation Society. “There must be some market specifically for owls.”

The haul also included live monitor lizards and live juvenile wild pigs. Only parts were found from other animals: wild pig, Malayan porcupine, reticulated python, Malayan pangolin, greater mouse deer, and sun bear (sun bear photo and facts).

A local man was arrested at the raid. But after pleading “not guilty” and posting bail of 19,000 ringgits (U.S. $5,300), he was released three days later.

Since Muar is a port town, experts believe the shipment was probably headed China, where the demand for game meat and for wildlife used in traditional medicine is driving the Asian trade.

All of the species seized in Muar are protected to some degree under Malaysian law. Sun bears, in particular, are banned from international trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Some Chinese covet the bear’s bile as medicinal, and its paws are considered delicacies.

Poaching fueled by such demand “could easily wipe out the species,” said Siew Te Wong, a University of Montana biology Ph.D. student who has been studying the small bears in the Malaysian part of Borneo island for ten years.

Three days after the Muar raid, agents acting on a tip obtained during the seizure raided a storage facility in the town of Segamat, where they found more than 7,000 live clouded monitor lizards.

The lizards were also likely destined for dining tables in China, according to the international conservation organization WWF.

CITES prohibits international trade of the roughly one-and-a-half-yard-long (one-and-a-half-meter-long) reptiles, which range throughout Southeast Asia.

Crackdown

Large-scale commercial traders buy wildlife “dirt cheap” from local people working in plantations or in the forests, according to Shepherd, of TRAFFIC.

“They have massive networks spread all over the countries in Southeast Asia,” he said.

“You can go to any village and everyone knows that if you catch, for example, a pangolin [scaly anteater], you can sell it.”

In 2005 countries in the region formed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network, or ASEAN-WEN, to combat illegal wildlife trade.

The crackdown sparked by the new collaboration seems to be bearing fruit.

In July officials in Indonesia seized a China-bound shipment of 14 tons of scaly anteaters. And during a raid in Vietnam, officials found 24 tons of the anteaters, which had been shipped from Indonesia.

“Historically, governments [in the region] have reacted with skepticism about the scope of the problem,” said Michael Zwirn, director of U.S. operations for the Wildlife Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.

“These kinds of large shipments indicate the severity of the issue,” he said.

“We hope that governments will look at this and realize that their natural heritage is being siphoned off.”

But ASEAN-WEN is not yet functioning properly, due to a lack of resources, experts warn. TRAFFIC’s Shepherd says the chances of any given trader getting caught are still “fairly slim.”

“If they do get caught, the penalties are very small and definitely not a deterrent,” he said.

The local man arrested in the Muar raid, for example, had been arrested on the same kinds of charges a few years earlier.

Poole, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said: “It’s important to do these busts. But following through and making sure that these people are prosecuted to the extent of the appropriate laws, I think, is critically important.”   

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 18 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/11/18/southneast/2563985

Tuesday November 18, 2008

Centre to help preserve Sabah’s sun bears

By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Having established itself as home for wildlife such as the orang utan, Sumatran rhino, Borneo pygmy elephant and proboscis monkey, Sabah intends to give more attention to its population of sun bears.

Noting that Sabah’s sun bears were one of the world’s eight bear species, Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said the state wanted to protect the mammal, which was considered a unique species.

 Needing care: File photo of sun bear researcher Wong Siew Te handling a sun bear in the cage at Sepilok near Sandakan.

“The task for us is to raise awareness on this little-known animal,” he said at a fund-raising event here recently for the establishment of a RM1.2mil sun-bear rehabilitation and conservation centre in Sepilok, Sandakan.

He said that research had shown that Borneo, particularly Sabah, was the last habitat for sun bears.

He said that conservation efforts must include getting them back into the wild.

The centre will be the first of its kind in Asia.

It is being set up jointly by the state’s wildlife and forestry departments and non-governmental organisation Land Empowerment Animals People, which organised the fund-raising event featuring Malaysian artistes.

Musa said the centre would provide opportunities for research on the animals apart from serving as a focal point for sun bear studies in Asia.

He said the centre could be developed as an educational and awareness facility as it was located next to the Sepilok orang utan rehabilitation centre and the Rainforest Discovery Centre.

He said the effort was another example of the close cooperation between state agencies and NGOs.

Musa said that similar efforts in the past had resulted in studies on Sabah’s flora and fauna and how to protect them

6 responses so far

Category: BSBCC | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Written by Cynthia Ong..

Subject: We did it
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 09:55:12 +0800

…. and nobody died.

I just surfaced from the dead.  This is the first email I am writing after the last couple of days or so in another realm. 

Bear Necessities raised RM1,300,000 or almost $400,000 — more than our target of RM1,200,000.  Apart from tables sales and auctions, we also got a government match of one to one for the night AND A GOVERNMENT MATCH OF ONE TO ONE FOR EVERYTHING WE RAISE FROM NOW ON!

The evening was fantastic.  We turned the foyer of the ballroom into a “cage” where all guests were “held” for about an hour — while they were served cocktails and mingled.  It was black tie/formal.  When the Chief Minister arrived, we “released” everyone into the ballroom, which had been transformed into a rainforest at night.  The program was packed with personal stories of the bears at Sepilok, interspersed with live music (some specially written for the night), auctions of sun bear inspired artwork, Wong’s presentation on the plight of sun bears, my presentation on the $ need, the MoU signing, etc.  We also zero-carboned the event by calculating our carbon emissions and offsetting it via a donation to PWET.  After the MoU signing, the CM made his speech and announced the one to one government match to BSBCC.

So …. we made history.  The first time ever Sabahan/Malaysian corporations-government-NGO came together to collaborate.  All our project partners helped out with transforming the ballroom - 11 from MESCOT led by Martin, 4 from PWET led by Raini, 6 from PACOS, 2 from Hutan including Marc.  We had teams from Forestry Dept and Wildlife Dept helping us with protocol, reception, ushering, MoU signing, etc.  We invited them all to come, including almost all NGOs in the conservation movement and acknowledged them all on stage.  The audience embodied the concept of paradox to a P — the biggest timber guys, palm oil guys, the conservation movement, government, communities.  It was quite something.

Anyway, we were apparently on national TV and LEAP was praised for our role in this.  I will send some pictures when I have some.  Wong is on cloud nine.  He is mostly speechless and overwhelmed with emotion. 

With the money we raised (half of the total need), we can begin constructing Phase I of BSBCC.

Phew.

Cxo

10 responses so far

Category: BSBCC | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

 http://lifeinborneo.com/2008/11/13/bear-necessities-fundraising-event-interview-with-wong-siew-te-cynthia-ong/

Posted by Xander on November 13th, 2008 in Wildlife

Upon reaching LEAP office, I was warmly greeted by Wong Siew Te who heads the conservation efforts with the Sun Bears. As I walked in, the place was full of energy where there were a handful of people working hard to make this event a momentous occasion. I was also greeted by Cynthia Ong, which is the Executive Director and founder of LEAP.

Lifeinborneo.com was given this enormous opportunity to meet up with these individuals whom are   energetic, passionate, enthusiastic and fervent people that have put their whole hearts into the efforts with the Sun Bears also known as Helarctos malayanus.

The Borneon Sun Bear Conservation Centre is a project aimed for the research, habitat conservation, education, and rehabilitation of the sun bears; one of the eight bear species in the world that has been somewhat overlooked by other wildlife biologists and conservationists. According to Wong, the number of sun bears in the wild especially Borneo is still unknown due to the fact that there is still insufficient data collected concerning these species.

“It is estimated to be around 8-12 sun bears per 100 square kilometers in Borneo and this number will only decrease especially with the alarming rate of poaching of these bears. Even the trappings are still rampant among those that lives near the plantations and deep edges of the the jungles just to prevent them from entering their territory. These are only a few of the reasons why this project is so important for them (the Sun Bears) and now is the time to do it.”, as Wong elaborated.

I asked Wong whether there are any sun bears still being exploited today and this is what he pointed out to me, ” Some irresponsible individuals keep certain protected species and use them as a symbol of social status in their homes and these include the Sun Bears. Sadly this ‘trend’ is still unchecked especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. The laws that are supposedly protecting these creatures are in a way still not good enough to ensure that they are taken care of properly.  They are kept in ‘private’ zoos in their back yard and are treated poorly by keeping them in small cages. Some people have different views of ‘well taken care of’ in this matter and their lack of knowledge and expertise with these animals are a great concern to us.”

It is well known that corporations in the United States and other foreign countries to give out large contributions to conservation efforts which they usually practice in their respective countries but this would be the first time this sort of collaboration is transpiring in Malaysia.

I asked Cynthia Ong if anyone ever done such an endeavor before, due to the fact that it is quite unheard of in Malaysia. She says, “It’s the first time in Malaysian history that the forestry, logging, palm oil plantations and several large corporations contributing to this conservation effort. These corporations will be collaborating with various NGO’s, Sabah Wildlife Department and working together on this ‘one-of-a-kind’ conservation effort. It is a major breakthrough for the conservationists to have this kind of reception which is very overwhelming.”

Wong explained further, “With the corporate companies utilizing the environment all these years for their interests, they too have the responsibility to do their part in helping with the conservation efforts.”

This event will not only pave the way for other parties which have not taken part in this project but also as a reminder that everyone can have a role in this endeavor which has long since been overlooked.

The contributions towards this occasion is the quintessential reason that this endeavor is taking place here in Sabah and the funds raised would be used to construct and maintain the BSBCC for the next 2 years. It is  a center where they could do more in depth cooperation with the people from the plantations, educating them about the dangers of poaching and/or trapping these endangered species.

The BSBCC, which is planned to be constructed at Sepilok would be a place to keep the confiscated bears from the wilds. Wong frequently comes to its temporary facility which is near Sepilok where there are 11 sun bears there at the moment with an enriched environment and natural forest enclosures.

“With the BSBCC, we could educate the people about the Sun Bears and create awareness among them and why it is crucial that they too do their part in helping these animals. With such an infrastructure it will also bring hope for these bears which so many people haven’t even heard of. Did you know that the biggest sun bear I’ve encountered only weighed only 56 kilograms? We have everything in our own backyard to help these bears; perfect climate and environment to further study and learn more about them”, as elaborated by Wong on the importance of such a facility here in Borneo.

With Wong Siew Te and Cynthia Ong at the helm of this monumental effort, along with other various agencies and government departments; it is not enough to help these endangered animals to secure their safe future. Without the help and support of the public it simply cannot be done, therefore; why not be part of this event and do your part in this event which promises to be an event unlike any other ever held in Malaysia. The public support is needed for this event to happen.

Quote from Wong Siew Te, ” We have to work together to make things happen and as long as we don’t lose hope, there are so much that we can achieve. We should not delay any longer and now is the right time we take up this endeavor further and push it forward and realize that it can be done, here in Malaysia. ”

Seats are still available for the Bear Necessities event. The individual seats are priced at MYR 500, MYR 1000, MYR 2000, MYR3000 and MYR 5000.

Many thanks to Cynthia Ong, Executive Director and found of LEAP and Wong Siew Te for giving us the opportunity to learn more of their work and the importance of such an undertaking.

*Photos by Roy Ajin.

Related posts

• ‘Bear Necessities’ Fundraising Event - A Success! (1)
• Bear Necessities - A fundraising event for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (4)

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Category: BSBCC | Date: Nov 16 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Lina (right) and Sam auctioning the painting title ‘natural habitat and sun bears’ by Wong Siew Lee which fetched RM36,000

16th November, 2008 KOTA KINABALU: Efforts to raise fund for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) received overwhelming support from generous donors and the state government on Friday night.

Some RM1.3 million was raised through the auction of four paintings and a sculpture, sales of dinner tickets and a matching grant from the state government during the Bear Necessities Fund Raising Event at a resort here.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman who graced the function announced that the state government would give a matching grant based on the amount of money raised during the event.

According to the Land Empowerment of Animal & People (LEAP) executive director Cynthia Ong, the BSBCC will cost about RM2.1 million.

It will be built next to the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sandakan and it will be carried out in three phases with phase one costing RM1.1 million, phase two RM600,000 and RM900,000 is needed for phase three.

Besides that, she said they have also received RM130,000 from international donors.

The fund raising event also saw a memorandum of understanding signed by Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Wildlife Department and LEAP.

Sun bear researcher Wong Siew Te said the kind financial support will help change the life of the sun bear and turn the centre into a tourism hotspot.

According to him, an enclosure will be built for the phase one project which can house 20 sun bears including 11 that were confiscated by the Sabah Wildlife Department.

Even though the sun bears are kept in captivity, they can gain access to the natural forest to enjoy life in the wild once the centre is completed, he said.

The phase two project will have a gallery for visitors to view the sun bears in their natural behaviour. Phase three will have an observatory platform and an exhibition centre, he said.

“The sun bear is a protected species and the plan to build the conservation centre is aimed at helping the bear and providing them a better place to live. The centre will be incorporated with conservation, education and research features,” he said.

The fund raising event was also supported by various artistes such as Ida Nerina, Lina Teoh and Joanna Bessey who assisted the Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu, Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan and Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun to conduct the auction of the sun bear paintings and sculpture.

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Category: BSBCC | Date: Nov 16 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

DAILY EXPRESS NEWS

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