Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is delighted at news of the return of four gorillas from Taiping to Cameroon! Their return is hailed as an important victory in the battle to protect Africa’s natural heritage, ending a five-year saga that became one of the most high profile cases in the history of animal trafficking.

These gorillas will finally be able to spend the rest of their natural lives in the company of existing gorillas at the Limbe Wildlife Centre in South Western Cameroon. This was made possible after DNA tests confirmed that they were indeed from Cameroon and the Cameroon government in 2003 made it clear that it wanted the gorillas back. Animal welfare groups, joined by a consortium of local and international non-governmental organisations, began lobbying governments and international organisations for the gorillas return.

The return of the gorillas sends a clear message that wildlife is worth fighting for and that it is against the law to capture gorillas from the wild and ship them overseas using forged documents. This is a clear indication to poachers, traders, dealers, zoos and all those involved in black market animal trade that no one profits from trading endangered animals. Almost everyone implicated in trafficking of gorillas in Nigeria has had some form of legal action taken against them. But sadly, this is not the case in Malaysia.

Instead of sending a clear message that smuggling valuable species will result in prosecution, the perception is that one can either get away scot-free by luck or at least avoid negative consequences. This is largely due to the flaws of the Protection of Wildlife Act that does not allow any action to be taken against anyone implicated. There are also no provisions in the Act requiring applicants to state whether an animal is captive-bred or sourced from the wild.

What is to stop this from happening again? As long as there is no thorough verification of signed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites) documents which can be easily forged or falsely signed, as long as the loopholes in Cites laws that allow the country of confiscation to decide where the animals go and as long as no one is charged with any criminal deed, then there is nothing to stop this travesty from happening again, not only to gorillas but to other rare animals and amphibians which are being depleted from the jungles of West and Central Africa for the zoo and pet markets.

The onus is on the Malaysian Cites authorities to take every measure to ensure that this does not happen again. It is their responsibility to ensure that animals imported for zoos are from legal sources and if in doubt to cease all trade.

The writer is president, Sahabat Alam Malaysia.