UNDP helps save rhinos

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)