I refer to the Malaysiakini report 59 pythons rescued from dinner table .

It seems clear that the illegal trade in endangered wildlife such as pythons and tigers shows no sign of diminishing. However, I congratulate the deputy prime minister for launching the National Tiger Action Plan.

This plan contains the ambitious target of halting the decline in Malaysia's tiger population by protecting the tiger's forest habitat and putting an end to poaching.

In order for this plan to succeed, a number of hurdles need to be overcome - not least of which is the need for support from the various state governments.

This will be particularly important in those states containing critical tiger habitats such as Belum-Temengor in Perak and Endau-Kota Tinggi in Johor.

In both these locations, the state governments face strong financial pressures to cut down their forests and replace them with oil palm and rubber plantations.

In the case of Johor, wildlife reserves and forest reserves form a critical linkage in the tiger's home range. But these forests are being cleared to plant ‘latex timber clones" (LTCs) under a soft-loan scheme funded by the federal government.

So far, 37,000 hectares of forest have been approved for conversion to rubber wood plantations under this scheme – and this area includes part of the Endau-Kota Tinggi Wildlife Reserve.

In order to reduce their impact on wildlife, these LTCs should only be established on degraded agricultural land that is away from the forest.

For the sake of the our national mascot, I hope that the decision makers heed the call of the deputy prime minister and take pro-active conservation action before it is too late.