RM100,000 boost to save the Sumatran rhino

KOTA KINABALU: Efforts to save the endangered Sumatran rhinoceros have received a boost with the Federal Government contributing RM100,000 for its conservation in Sabah.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said the amount would finance an advanced reproductive technology that could be used to save the most ancient line of the species and among five living rhinoceros species now on the brink of extinction.

“The only hope for these species now lies in bringing as many of them as possible into closely-managed facilities and use advanced reproductive technologies,” he said at the Asean Regional Forum Workshop on Combating Wildlife Trafficking here yesterday.

Palanivel said there was hope if successful methods for artificial insemination could be developed for the last few fertile females and males and if embryos could be implanted into surrogate mothers.

He also hoped the fund would contribute to the advanced reproductive technology by the Borneo Rhinoceros Alliance, a non-governmental organisation that has worked closely with the Sabah Wildlife Department.

He said the ministry would also present a paper on conservation efforts to impede the extinction of Sumatran rhinos and other endangered species in the National Biodiversity Council.