Kota Kinabalu: Environmental and wildlife protection groups under Coalition Humans Habitats Highways (3H) again sounded the alarm over the proposed construction of an alignment of the Pan Borneo Highway (PBH) through elephant habitat in Tawai Forest Reserve, Telupid.
Conservationists are concerned that the alignment, which is set to cut through some of the last remaining wilderness areas for elephants, could fuel a resurgence in poaching, threatening the survival of these already vulnerable animals.
AdvertisementThe recent beheading of an elephant along the Kalabakan road is just an example of what could happen when the PBH will traverse the Class 1 Forest Reserve where a large concentration of elephants is found.
Elephant poaching has been a persistent crisis, fuelled by the high demand for ivory and other body parts on the black market.
