The Malayan tiger is said to be the national animal of Malaysia. The tiger appears in various heraldry of Malaysian institutions such as the Royal Malaysia Police, Proton – which is Malaysia’s first national car company, its universal bank, Maybank and the Football Association of Malaysia, among others. Even Malaysia’s national football team, the pride of the country, has been given the nickname ‘Harimau Malaya’ (Malayan tigers).

The Seychelles, a string of 115 verdant, rocky islands in the Indian Ocean, recently announced – in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic – that it would protect 30 percent of its glittering turquoise waters from commercial use.Safeguarding some 410,000 square kilometres (158,000 square miles) of the sea will benefit wildlife on the shore and in the water, including 100,000 giant tortoises and some of the world’s last pristine coral reefs.

Vietnam seized more than two tonnes of ivory tusks and pangolin scales hidden inside wooden boxes shipped from Nigeria, state media reported Tuesday.The bust comes at the end of a year of big wildlife seizures destined for communist Vietnam, a hotbed of the illicit but lucrative trade in animal parts from elephants, pangolins, tigers and rhinos.Authorities in northern Hai Phong city found 330 kilograms of ivory and 1.7 tonnes of pangolin scales after checking three container shipments from Ni

Newly-hatched tortoises take their first steps at a Bangladesh conservation park, their feet barely visible under hard shells that carry the weight of the species on their backs.These tiny new-borns – 41 in all – belong to a species thought to have gone extinct in the country until seven years ago, when they were rediscovered by conservationists with the help of locals in the south-eastern Chittagong hills.Once abundant across dense tropical forests in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand, the p

A recent report that Malaysia is the world’s second-largest importer of shark fin should come as no surprise judging by the government’s seemingly indifferent attitude towards shark conservation.Appetite for shark fin soup has seen populations of some species crash by over 90 percent in recent years, and Malaysia is playing a large role in that decline with its imports of shark fin – which are now ahead of China.Sharks can be consumed in Malaysia because they are listed as ‘fish’ under Malays

The recent nomination of five protected areas to join the ASEAN Heritage Parks network marks another milestone in the region’s efforts to conserve its rich but highly threatened biodiversity – and sheds more light on this valuable network of nature reserves and marine parks.Managed by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), ASEAN Heritage Parks are defined as “protected areas of high conservation importance which preserve complete spectrums of representative ecosystems of the ASEAN region.”A

Recent news reports that Japan and Iceland will be resuming their whale hunting programmes are going against the international trend of whale conservation and have been met with international backlash.Last December, Japan announced it would be withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resuming commercial whaling this July.