Liew (centre), flanked by Tuuga (second left) and director of Danau Girang Field Centre, Benoit Goossens, speaking to reporters at the press conference.
KOTA KINABALU (March 20): Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said the Sabah Wildlife Department (JHL) is preparing a Cabinet paper on the transition from Free Contact (FC) Management to Protective Contact (PC) Management of captive elephants in Sabah to ensure the safety of animal keepers.
There are 25 elephants in captivity at three facilities – 14 at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, six in Sepilok, Sandakan and five at the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary (BES), Kinabatangan.
“We are in the process of implementing the Sabah Captive Elephant Management Plan (CEMP) on safe elephant handling as part of the Sabah Bornean Elephant Action Plan (2020-2029).
“I will present the paper to the Cabinet for deliberation and consideration. It is about improving the facilities and adopting good management practices in managing the elephants in captivity,” Liew told a press conference after officiating at the Workshop on Managing People and Macaques in Shared Spaces at Le Meridien on Monday.
The CEMP is being drafted and expected to be completed soon, she said.
Director of JHL, Augustine Tuuga, who also spoke, said the shift from FC Management to PC Management involved modifying all the structures sheltering the captive elephants.
“At the moment, we are only doing Free Contact Management which is dangerous for the handler (in reference to the incident where an elephant attacked and killed an elephant keeper last December).
“The idea of changing to Protected Contact Management is to make the place safer for the handler, whereby the elephant is free and safe inside the enclosure while the handler is safe outside. We call this Protected Contact. We need funding to modify all the current infrastructure for captive elephants,” he explained.