UNDP helps save rhinos

JAKARTA: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has agreed to provide US$2 million in grant money over the course of a three-year period to assist wildlife conservation and to help management agencies in Indonesia and Malaysia with their conservation strategies for rhinoceri in each nation.

The government of Indonesia will also input $560,700, according to the project document that was signed last week by UNDP Resident Representative C. Jan Kamp and Director General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation of the Ministry of Forestry Soerjadi Hartono.

Kamp said the two species of Southeast Asia Rhinos, the Sumatran and the Java, are among the rarest and most endangered mammals in the world.

Fewer than 500 Sumatran Rhinos, distributed over approximately 35 locations in Indonesia and Malaysia still survive while fewer than 70 Javan rhinos exist, mainly in West Java and a small group rediscovered in Vietnam. Current populations are small and scattered and most are threatened by illegal hunting and loss of habitat.(sim)