Project update 2: Kudos to Wildlife Department for nabbing pangolin hunters

Rimba would like to give a special shout-out to the Terengganu State Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP or its Malay acronym PERHILITAN) for conducting a successful raid that netted Vietnamese and Cambodian poachers plundering Tembat Forest Reserve, one of the research sites in the Kenyir Wildlife Corridor Project. The poachers were caught red-handed with pangolin meat and scales.

DWNP trailed the poachers for 70 km from Sungai Ketiar Elephant Sanctuary, after the poachers were initially spotted leaving the forest reserve by car. The fact that these foreigners were able to easily access the forest using a vehicle is yet another example of how roads can facilitate entry for illegal hunting and collection of forest produce.

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Project update 1: Rimba’s first research station operational

We would like to announce that Rimba’s first research station is now operational in the idyllic (and often wet) Basung Village in the Kuala Berang district of Terengganu (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: View out of Rimba’s research station. © Rimba

Our first research station is fortunate to have a strategic location (Fig. 2)- 45 min from Kuala Terengganu, 1 hr from the beaches of Penarik, 20 min from the jetties at Gawi where boats ferry people to jungles of Kenyir Lake and the Tanjong Mentong entrance of Taman Negara, and 1.5 hrs from the Kuala Koh entrance of Taman Negara.

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