KUCHING: Sarawak Forestry Department (SFD) is allowed to export up to 850 crocodiles annually, either for consumption or to zoos globally.
“Based on our studies, if we harvest up to 850 crocodiles from the wild, it is still considered sustainable and (the reptiles) would not go into extinction. This shows that their population in Sarawak is big,” said wildlife officer and deputy controller Engkamat Lading.
“However, this does not apply to crocodiles in farms such as Jong’s Crocodile Farm. They (crocodiles) do not fall under this category, the farm that is registered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) criteria can sell them on their own.”
He was met by reporters yesterday after the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 and Empowerment of Act 686 Course launched by Forest acting deputy director Abang Ahmad Abang Morni at Grand Margherita Hotel here.
Engkamat further elaborated that crocodile farms still need the Cites permit to export and trade and, “there are no quotas for them as long as they can prove that the crocodiles are from the farm and not the wild.”
“As of today, there are four crocodile farms registered under Cites in Sarawak, which are located in Kuching, Serian, Miri and Sibu,” he added.
When asked by reporters on the export system, he explained, “There are two requirements when exporting at international and state level – one is to have a permit under Cites for export outside Malaysia and the other is having a permit that is issued by the local wildlife law, Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998, which is needed to export out of Sarawak.”
“Exporting crocodiles for instance, needs two permits whereby one is to be exported out of Sarawak and the other is the Cites permit because once the consignment arrived, the management authorities in other countries would be asking to check both permits.”
Engkamat said Sarawak had exported crocodiles, ramin timber, corals, Asian arowana (dragon fish) and Nepenthes orchids under Cites.
He further explained that it did not matter whether these were exported to zoo or for consumption or any other purposes.
“For crocodiles, they can be consumed with regulation and we allow them since Oct 2016, whereby we started to issue licence to export and for commercial hunting with Cites export permit.
“We have allowed them to do so with quota since 2017 because we have conducted a non-detriment finding first, we need to have a legislation to prevent them (crocodiles) from extinction before we can allow them to be traded or exported,” he said.
On the two-day course that will end today, it is an annual event funded by the Land, Water and Natural Resources Ministry in which they want to share the experience and knowledge about how the authorities go about exporting and selling wildlife outside Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Abang Ahmad mentioned that Cites, which was signed in Washington DC on March 3, 1973, was a responsibility for SFD to ensure that the international trade of endangered wildlife fauna and flora species was controlled and done in a sustainable way.
“As a country member to Cites, we have an International Trade on Endangered Species Act which is Act 686 gazetted in 2008, to control the international trade of wildlife species listed under Cites.”
