KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah state government is considering to reward individuals who provide information, along with evidence, on killings or criminal activities involving wildlife to the authorities.

State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the move would hopefully increase awareness and sense of responsibility of the local communities in the protection and conservation of wildlife, while enabling appropriate action to be taken against the culprits.

“The responsibility to protect wildlife does not rest with the relevant agencies alone. The cooperation of the local people, to report any incident, is crucial in ensuring that evidence is not lost.

“The problem is, people are more inclined to post and viralise an incident in the social media rather than report it to the authorities for prompt action to be taken,” he told reporters when met after the state-level Warriors Day 2017 celebration here yesterday.

He was commenting on the discovery of about 100 turtle skeletons scattered on the beaches along Kampung Pantau-Pantau, Kampung Amboh-Amboh and Kampung Sampolan on Bum-Bum Island, Semporna recently.

Masidi said the ministry did not have updates on the case which was still under investigation by the Wildlife Department. — Bernama