Coming Thursday, January 31, the court will decide whether Anong is guilty or innocent to a claim to have used violence against a suspected turtle egg poacher.
 
Recruited a few years ago from a local community, WWFs turtle monitoring assistant Anong regularly monitors Paloh beach in Sambas district, as it is an important turtle nesting beach in West Kalimantan. On August 5 last year, on surveillance along the area called Sungai Ubah that is known for frequent illegal turtle egg poaching, Anong in his small team of 3 people (Redy - WWF’s monitoring assistant and Andy – a member of Pokmaswas which is a local community turtle monitoring group) saw 3 people arriving to this beach and as the monitoring team was hiding in the bushes, they saw the three men waiting for a turtle to finish laying her eggs and they were erasing traces of the nesting activity. Poachers often remove evidence that there was a nest if they take the eggs.

The patrolling team intervened before the 3 people could take the eggs and managed to catch one of them after a short pursuit. They asked him about the reason for being on the beach and wanted to take photos of the suspected poacher. Not collaborating, the poachers attacked Anong and a short fight started and left the suspect, wounded in the head from the camera that hit him, as Anong was trying to avoid his fists. The two parties managed to end the fight and the injured man was taken to receive medical care. Later, the upset uncle of the suspect reported the events to local authorities as Anong having used violence. Anong was put into Sambas jail on November 7.

Since Anong has been in jail, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs respresented by Directorate General of Marine, Coastal and Small Islands plans to visit him and on January 30 he will receive an award for his work. Also, a local support group was established and their leader Muraizi, appeals actively for Anong to be acquitted of all charges because the testimony by the suspected egg poacher is inconsistent and was changed several times. The testimony of Anong and other witnesses shows that Anong acted in self defense and that the injury was an accident, not an act of targetted violence. The suspect poachers indeed admitted in the court that they have twice poached turtle eggs, and were about to poach again when confronted that evening.

Turtles and all derived products are protected by Law. 5/1990 on the Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems, Law no. 31/2004 juncto Law. 45/2009 on Fisheries, Government Regulation No. 7/1999 on Preservation of Flora and Fauna, and Government Regulation No. 60/2007 on the Conservation of Fish Resources.

Contact: Hermayani Putera, WWF Project Leader of West Kalimantan, hputera@wwf.or.id

________
Paloh, with 63 km reaching all the way to the Malaysian border is the longest sea turtle nesting beach and especially significant for green turtle and hawksbill species. The WWF-Indonesia West Kalimantan Program started the Paloh work in 2009, aiming to establish a Turtle based Marine Protected Area.