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Ministry to intensify publicity efforts about protected animals after Javan porcupine case
A Balinese villager is on trial for keeping four protected Javan porcupines despite the Environmental and Forestry Ministry not properly educating the public about protected animals.
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Nyoman Sukena (left) sits during his trial at the Denpasar District Court for keeping four Javan porcupines. Sukena was not aware that the porcupines were protected when he caught them after they destroyed his family's crops. (Tribun-Bali.id/Adrian Amurwonegoro)
T
he Environmental and Forestry Ministry will intensify public information efforts about the keeping of protected animals and provide assistance and uphold law enforcement when necessary.
“Actually, there are many types of protected animals, so we have conducted so many publicity efforts,” the ministry’s natural resources and ecosystem conservation director general, Satyawan Pudyatmoko, said on Tuesday, as reported by Antara news agency.
“But perhaps for certain areas we have to intensify the information efforts for protected animals.
Satyawan was responding to a resident in Badung regency, Bali, who faces prison for keeping four Javan porcupines.
He said that usually any residents keeping protected animals would be educated and assisted, saying that his office would persuade residents to hand over the protected animals voluntarily.
Those animals would then have their health and behavior assessed to determine whether they can be released back into the wild.
Satyawan gave an assurance that the ministry would not cherry-pick in enforcing the regulations, saying that education, supervision and reprimands were sent to all related parties.
“There is no exception. If we detect anything violating the regulations, we will act according to the procedures,” he said.
Nyoman Sukena from Bongkasa Pertiwi village was arrested by the Bali Police on March 4, after a report was filed on him for keeping Javan porcupines.
Sukena could be jailed for five years for keeping the protected animals while admitting that he was not aware that the porcupines were protected.
The porcupines had been nurtured for about five years after Sukena’s family caught them destroying their crops.
The case is being heard at the Denpasar District Court.
Separately, village official Made Mudita criticized the case, saying that Nyoman should not have been arrested.
He said that the Bali Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) had yet to provide any education or public information about protected animals.
“He was just keeping the porcupines, but the legal process continued. The BKSDA seized the animals but there were no education efforts at all,” Mudita said, as reported by kompas.com.
Mudita suggested authorities should educate locals before enforcing the law.
He also said that there were many Javan porcupines in the area, so the villagers had given up planting coconuts.
The villagers would plant coconut seedlings during the day but by nighttime, they would already be consumed by the porcupines, Mudita said.
