WWF-Malaysia’s tiger conservation work consists of several components, which are designed to reduce threats towards tigers and other wildlife living within the same landscape.

Anti-poaching patrols

WWF-Malaysia hires a total of 15 patrol teams, each consisting of five people. All of these patrol team members come from the local indigenous communities, who have been trained to patrol and collect data on poaching independently. They patrol for two weeks every month to find and remove snares and other poaching threats. This information is channelled to the enforcement agencies for further action.

Tiger research

WWF-Malaysia has a team of field biologists and indigenous field assistants to carry out monitoring of the tiger population through the use of camera-traps. Since tigers have unique stripes, they can be identified through photographs of their flanks. Thus we can effectively count the number of tigers from camera-trapping surveys, to monitor how tigers are doing and measure our conservation success.

Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS)

In March 2023, Royal Belum State Park, under the management of the Perak State Parks Corporation (PSPC), was awarded the prestigious Conservation Assured |Tiger Standards (CA|TS) approval, in recognition of its exceptional conservation efforts and commitment to tiger conservation. WWF-Malaysia has worked with PSPC since 2017 to achieve this approval, providing guidance and support throughout the accreditation process by facilitating the standards implementation and closely monitoring the standards compliance. This achievement places Malaysia on the map as the very first country in Southeast Asia to implement CA|TS.

CA|TS is an accreditation scheme that encourages tiger conservation areas to meet a set of standards and criteria, created by an international group of experts and protected area managers, which assures effective and long-term tiger conservation.

Ecological linkages/land-use

WWF-Malaysia monitors land-use changes within Belum-Temengor and the surrounding areas to keep an eye out for development projects which might affect the integrity of the habitat. WWF-Malaysia also conducts camera-trapping surveys at important ecological linkages which connect Belum-Temengor and Taman Negara, to find out how wildlife utilizes these corridors and to lobby for their protection.

Forest conservation

WWF-Malaysia works together with the Department of Forestry to improve the management of Temengor and other forest reserves within Belum-Temengor. This consists of advocating for the protection of critical resources for tiger prey such as saltlicks, restricting access to the forest to encroachers and poachers, as well as reporting illegal activities and improper logging practices.

Community engagement

Strong alliances with community partners are essential for active involvement and in leading to a positive change in human behaviour for effective tiger conservation. The community component strategy will address threats faced by the indigenous communities, hence building their resilience to future threats and capacity to recognise the urgency for wildlife protection through consultations, focus group discussions, workshops and awareness/outreach programs based on a Free, Prior and Informed Consent approach. This strategy aims to enable the Orang Asli to move forward on a progressive level of engagement from the participative stage towards community empowerment.

Advocacy

WWF-Malaysia engages with all levels of government to pursue the tiger conservation agenda; from federal to state level, down to district and agency level. Scientific findings, information collected from patrolling work and technical knowledge are used to come up with recommendations for tiger conservation and habitat protection which are advocated to government agencies and managing authorities.