IPOH, 31 March 2023:
The Royal Belum State Park has been recognised for its exceptional conservation efforts and commitment to tiger conservation. This milestone has been achieved through a fruitful partnership with WWF-Malaysia, who provided guidance and support throughout the accreditation process.
This certifies the commitment of PSPC and the Royal Belum State Park in supporting tiger conservation efforts, and places Malaysia on the map as the very first country in Southeast Asia to implement Conservation Assured |Tiger
Standards (CA|TS).
In a statement, WWF-Malaysia said it has worked since 2017 with Royal Belum State Park, under the management of the Perak State Parks Corporation (PSPC), to achieve this approval, by facilitating the standards implementation and closely monitoring the standards compliance.
CA|TS is a global accreditation scheme that encourages tiger conservation areas to meet a set of standards and best practices that will lead to successful tiger conservation. Being CA|TS approved shows that effectively managing a site according to best practises enables tiger conservation and where possible, population recovery.
In Malaysia. These initiatives include intensive patrolling through the WWF-Malaysia Project Stampede, where Orang Asli were mobilised to regularly patrol the deep forests of the Royal Belum State Park, and setting up of the all-indigenous Jahai Asli patrol team – MENRAQ – for tiger protection.
“Apart from that, continuous monitoring of tigers and their prey population is also being conducted by WWF-Malaysia to assess the impact of these initiatives.”
WWF-Malaysia executive director and CEO Sophia Lim said: “This is a big step towards creating a long-term conservation impact for the Malayan tiger.
“This also sends a strong message to the world that we are committed, and now join the likes of Nepal and Russia, to protect our tigers. We were delighted to see WWF-backed action in Nepal and other countries paying off: a win-win for people and nature.
“We are hopeful that together with PSPC, our efforts will see Malayan tiger numbers doubling or, at the very least increasing, in the near future.”
The Malayan tiger conservation efforts in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex is a collaborative initiative with multiple stakeholders, including Perak state government, PSPC, WWF-Malaysia, Maybank Foundation, Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan), Economic Planning Unit of Perak, Forestry Department of Perak, Royal Malaysian Police, and Malaysian Armed Forces, among others.