More personnel, specific laws needed to protect marine parks: Wan Junaidi

LANGKAWI: The Department of Marine Parks Malaysia requires an additional 152 enforcement officers, apart from more specific legal provisions to safeguard marine parks in the country, says Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (pix).
Currently, he said there were only about 100 enforcement officers with an average of three people in one patrol boat at any one time, which was not sufficient.
This placed them in danger while carrying out enforcement duties, he noted.
"We want to change it so that it (enforcement duties) will become safer, more appropriate. We do not want to wait for a problem to occur, and only then improve the (standard operating procedure) norms," he said after the launch of three new catamaran patrol boats for the department here today.
According to him, the department could emulate the operating procedures of other departments which placed at least seven officers on each boat.
"I will meet with the Public Service director-general to convince him of the real situation (on why the Marine Parks Department needs additional enforcement officers)," he said.
Wan Junaidi said he had also instructed Marine Parks Department director-general Datuk Dr Sukarno Sugianto to prepare a draft for the Marine Parks Bill so that it could be studied by the ministry before it was tabled in Parliament.
He said since its inception in 2004, the department was still carrying out enforcement based on the provisions under the Fisheries Act 1985.
"By right, the law should have been enacted at the time (2004), so that the department would have had its own laws, and enforced by the department itself," he said.
He said the department should give urgent attention to this matter to enable it to have a clear basis for enforcement in relation to its role of maintaining marine parks in the country.
"It is my wish that during the Budget sitting at the end of the year, we should be able to get the first reading (of the Marine Parks Bill)...then at least, the law can be implemented by 2017," added Wan Junaidi.— Bernama