Human-Wildlife Interactions

Everyday we receive news and updates from the community regarding the negative human-monkey Interaction news in Malaysia.

“Monkeys are feeding on my rambutan tree!” “My rubbish bin got flipped over by the brown monkeys ler!”

“The langurs are trying to attack me when I tried to feed them!”

“Can you translocate the monkeys ah? Put in other place only ma”

To our dear friends, Urbanization accelerates habitat loss and fragmentation, cause wildlife to roam near forest edges, close to our human-impacted areas. Humans must progress, where development has taken away the forest habitat of the monkeys and wildlife.

Humans are trying to be kind by feeding wild monkeys, which causes more human-monkey conflicts. Humans think trapping and translocating monkeys are easy tasks, but the standard operating procedures of doing so is far from ‘simple’.

There is already not much natural habitat left around us.The increasing number of human-monkey conflict reports yearly do not reflect the monkeys are dangerous. As forest cover is decreasing and our natural habitats are being encroached, we must start to ask ourselves the questions: CAN WE DO BETTER?

The ultimate solution is COLLABORATION & PARTNERSHIP among the community, authorities, and scientists. We hope multiple stakeholders would work together to provide a better-shared space for humans and wildlife by safeguarding our remaining forested areas and green spaces and improve our system. Our system needs improvement.

The Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 is not perfect, and we need to address the problems to encourage better changes. It is about acknowledging the problem and tackling its causes, not its symptoms. Facilitating safe spaces for humans and wildlife in urban areas starts with us. Everyone can help make a positive difference in our society by promoting peaceful coexistence among humans and wildlife.

We need Malaysians to be the eyes and ears of the wildlife. Together, we can make a difference.