Tapir killing case: Conservationist says early education is key

Lampung conservation activist Febrilia Ekawati has said that fostering conservation education from an early age can prevent incidents of wildlife killing. “Reflecting on the killing and consumption of a tapir, an endangered species, in Mesuji Regency, this illustrates that not all people in Lampung Province understand the importance of protecting and preserving wildlife, especially endangered species,” said Febrilia Ekawati, a Lampung conservation activist who is also the Executive Director of the Way Seputih Conservation Foundation, when contacted in Bandarlampung on Friday. Therefore, she said, it is important to carry out continuous education and foster conservation awareness from an early age, especially for communities in areas adjacent to or within protected forests, conservation forests, nature reserves, or national parks. “This conservation education must start being cultivated from kindergarten level, so that the incident in Register 45 Mesuji is not repeated. Because according to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the tapir is categorised as endangered or at high risk of extinction,” she said. This information can be continuously disseminated through education in schools, village-level forums, or through religious and cultural approaches. “In Lampung Province, there are many rare and endangered species, so conservation education through contextual approaches according to local culture or religion can be a way to convey conservation messages,” she said. According to her, if the majority of the community, especially those in areas near national parks or register forests, have developed an awareness to protect wildlife, it will reduce the potential for negative interactions between wildlife and humans or incidents of killing wild animals when they leave their forest areas or habitats. Based on information from the Bengkulu Lampung Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), in Mesuji Regency, Lampung, precisely in Register 45 on Thursday (2/7), a protected animal, a tapir (Tapirus Indicus), was on the highway and attracted the attention of residents. However, at 7.27 p.m. Western Indonesian Time, the team received information that the tapir was dead, cut into three parts, and had been killed by residents. Following this action, at the same time the Mesuji Police Criminal Investigation Unit team secured four perpetrators who captured and killed the protected tapir.