I welcome the recent suggestion of the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum that wildlife offenders should be jailed instead of the mere on-the-spot fine which is said to be ineffective. Malanjum recommended stiffer fines and mandatory jail terms for offences such as the killing of protected wildlife species and illegal logging during a workshop on environmental protection in Sabah recently.

The learned judge has given an assurance that his office will work closely with the relevant government agencies to amend the specific legislation to make it mandatory for wildlife criminals to be produced in court and subjected to stiff penalties. It is indeed heartening to note that the learned judge has come out so strongly in favour of punitive fines and jail terms for wildlife criminals.

I hope our federal wildlife enforcement authorities (Perhilitan) will take note of the development in Sarawak and take the necessary measures to ensure wildlife criminals are not let of the hook so easily due to the inherent weakness in our prosecution procedures. It appears that there is a lack of seriousness among our enforcement officers and the judiciary with regard to wildlife trade offences despite its tremendous impact on our environment and society at large.

The public are of the view that the relevant authorities are not doing enough to prosecute wildlife offenders in the court and the judiciary being perceived as been too lenient with wildlife criminals.

Perhaps the relevant agencies and the judiciary in particular may not be aware of the immeasurable impacts of illegal wildlife trade and its effects on biodiversity. Due to this apparent lack of biodiversity awareness among the judges and other members of the judiciary, many wildlife offenders are getting away with petty fines and sentencing.

As suggested by the learned Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, there is need to create awareness among our judges and magistrate of the seriousness of illegal wildlife trade and its impact on our biodiversity. If need be specialised guidelines on effective sentencing should be at the disposal of our judges and magistrate in the absence of adequate precedent base guidelines.

The courts should view illegal wildlife trade and the killing of protected species seriously and this must be reflected in their judgments.

According to a report by the World Wildlife Fund the global wildlife population has decreased by 52 percent between 1970 and 2014 and human activities have been singled out by scientists as the major contributor to these wildlife losses (Wikipedia). Our precious wildlife species will continue to decline  if we fail to take drastic steps to stop all the illegal wildlife activities.

Wildlife offences should be viewed very seriously by our courts and deterrent fines and jail sentences should be meted out swiftly. Individuals or organisations who provide protection and collaborate with wildlife offenders must be punished severely, too. Some of our endangered animals are being pushed towards extinction by wildlife traffickers who are taking advantage of our weak enforcement and prosecution.