Sahabat Alam Malaysia, a tool, nothing more, probably les.

Took this from their website;

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) adalah sebuah badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah ditubuhkan pada tahun 1977. Perjuangan SAM adalah untuk memelihara alam yang dianugerah dan diamanahkan oleh Tuhan daripada dieksploitasi dan dimusnahkan oleh kegiatan manusia dalam pelbagai bentuk atas nama pembangunan dan kemajuan.

Dalam mengembangkan wadah perjuangan alam sekitar ini, SAM telah di beri penghargaan dengan penganugerahan Global 500, Honour Roll 1978, Alternative Global Price 1988, Goldman Award 1991, Conde Nast Travel Environmental Award 1998 dan The Right Liverhood Award.

What year is it now? Think by now they've become political tools. Take a note on where and why they were involved with certain protests/memorandums. Notice which state? Opposition controlled, and only RECENTLY.

Recently their clown of a president made a few statements regarding the swiftlet industry, calling for a clamp down on all swiftlet ranching activities and at the same time making baseless accusations regarding zoonotic diseases claimed to be caused by swiftlets. Honestly... the fact that these people are supposed to be protecting the interest of wildlife surprises me, don't they have any basic knowledge of biology or at least zoology? It just shows how typical a Malaysia NGO is, full of talk, no substance. Refer to the Star Friday 28th August page N56 (its time to ban farming of swiftlets).

The swiftlet industry has the potential of becoming Malaysia's next highly
sought commodity. However certain issues and quarters have many
misconceptions that end up becoming accusations which are not based on
proper data collection or research. For instance, it is not logical for a
specific arthropod with a specific habitat throughout its life cycle (for
instance a mite or tick which lives in cave like environment, feeding off
nesting cave birds) somehow ended up biting or having contact with a human
living in a well aerated 2 story terrace house which obviously has no
birds nor nests. If Sahabat Alam Malaysia has any scientific proof of bird
flu zoonotically transmitted by A.fuciphagus, please inform WHO since even
they haven't proven so. It is agreed there is poor documentation and
research.

The swiftlet industry needs more research done. Even the previous GAHP was
made in a rush and was not properly thought out what more enforced. Red
tape must be reduced, and even the UNDANG-UNDANG MALAYSIA, AKTA 76, AKTA
PERLINDUNGAN HIDUPAN LIAR 1972 needs to be revised since it states no
specific criteria nor even a proper definition of how the wild animals
stated in schedule 1 to 4 are selected. It would be logical that protected
or fully protected animals are defined so due to their population and
epidemiological status. Population is of no issue for Aerodramus
fuciphagus since the boom in bird ranches this past decade has
exponentially increased their numbers. Bird ranchers have in fact
contributed to conservation, the issue that PERHILITAN should handle are
cave nests/birds and not properly planned bird ranches.

Here was a response from one of PERHILITAN's staff when i questioned the Act;

Terima kasih atas maklumbalas tuan. Secara spesifik definasi dari sudut
> populasi sesuatu spesies di bawah Perkara 3 tidak terdapat dalam Akta
> Perlindungan Hidupan Liar 1972 [Akta 76].
> Namun demikian Akta ini menyenaraikan spesies-spesies binatang dan burung
> liar sebagai yang diperlindungi dan diperlindungi sepenuhnya sebagaimana
> Jadual Satu, Dua, Tiga, Empat dan Lima, tanpa mengambil kira populasi
> darimana ianya boleh ditemui atau secara semulajadi terdapat didalam
> Semenanjung Malaysia mahupun dibawa daripada luar negara samada ianya
> matang atau tidak atau boleh dijinakkan atau dibiakkan dalam kurungan.
> Dari aspek peruntukan Akta ini semua spesies yang tersenarai adalah
> tertakluk di bawah Akta ini. Sebarang aktiviti yang akan melibatkan
> spesies di bawah Jadual mestilah terlebih dahulu mendapat kebenaran
> daripada Jabatan Perlindungan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara (PERHILITAN)
> samada dalam bentuk lesen, permit atau permit khas mengikut mana yang
> berkenaan.


heck, if the Pengarah of PERHILITAN suddenly went mad and put not fully tamed cattle in the list... we'd be in a fix since theres no way we can challenge his authority.

Having said so, it is true there are errant bird ranch owners that do not
abide by the GAHP. If proper guano management, scheduled harvesting and
proper audio playing was done, there would be less biased misconceptions.

I would also like to highlight to SAM regarding the Mukah (and Sarawak in
general) incidents whereby bird ranches were broken into, items and nests
seized and hundreds maybe thousands of baby birds left piled on the ground
and ended up dead. Why did this happen? Out of thousands of bird house
operation permits applied, only a few were approved. Why so would be
anybody's guess. Where was SAM during times like this?

Several proposals about the industry has popped up here and there, all
containing ways for certain quarters to control and monopolize the birds
nest industry. Hopefully we are not continuously governed by biased and
corrupt officials.

Last but not least, we should promote more bird ranches on agriculture
land. Eco-Parks and the sorts might possibly lead to limitation of food
supply once the population becomes saturated.