Reuben Clements has achieved one success after another since graduating from the National University of Singapore. Currently working in peninsular Malaysia, he manages conservation programs for the Endangered Malayan tiger and the Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Malaysia. At the same time he has discovered three new species of microsnails, one of which was named in the top ten new species of 2008 (a BIG achievement for a snail) due to its peculiar shell which has four different coiling axes.
"The most for any known gastropod!" Clements told Mongabay.com. "In addition, the whorls thrice detach and twice reattach to preceding whorls in a fairly consistent manner, which suggests that the coiling strategy is under some form of strict developmental-gene control."
It was these microsnails, and not the tigers and rhinos as one might expect, that piqued Clement's interest in wildlife and conservation. Clements says that after starting a seashell collection the Philippines at the age of twelve, he developed a deeper interest in conservation during a trip to Malaysia—just as he was about to study engineering at the age of twenty.
"My friends brought me to limestone karsts in the jungles of Northern Peninsular Malaysia where we spent days searching for micro-landsnails. Not only was I awe-struck standing under towering karsts, I was also amazed by the bizarre and minute snail species that I found on the rocks, some of which were probably found in one place and nowhere else on Earth. On the way back, however, I witnessed several limestone hills being blasted away for cement, and with it, probably lots of endemic snails," Clements says. "I think that’s when my conservation ethic first grew."
A karst blasted away for limestone, Ipoh, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: Reuben Clements.
Clements is now acting on his conservation ethic every day. He describes his job with WWF as "a blast!" and is clearly comfortable tracking tigers and elephants in the field, working with indigenous tribes, dealing with armed poachers, and creating new initiatives to save the last megafauna of Southeast Asia.
"Working for WWF-Malaysia has given me an invaluable perspective on real-world conservation," Clements says. "That’s something I could never get if I stayed on in the university."
While Clements has yet to see a tiger in the wild, he says that isn't unusual as his team has spent years tracking them without seeing one.
"Tigers face an uncertain future in Malaysia," he says of their conservation. "The population may be less than 500. But this is just an estimate." Clements adds that the country needs more tiger surveys "to assess the true conservation status of the Malayan tiger."
Adult tiger caught on camera traps (seen attached to tree) in Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia.
Pointing to the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT), Clements see the possibility of saving this biggest of the big cats. He says that "the government with support from MYCAT has […] come up with the National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, which details 80 activities to be implemented by government agencies and MYCAT partners in order to double wild populations by 2020."
However to achieve this goal, a lot more needs to be done. "Government and private companies that are driving infrastructure development (e.g., construction of roads) and the clear-felling of natural forests for timber and agriculture plantations need to be engaged by conservationists, who can try and transform business practices in order to mitigate or prevent potentially disastrous impacts on tiger habitats," Clements explains. "With increased political will and improvement in public attitudes towards wildlife conservation, I think there’s a fighting chance to prevent the tiger from going extinct."
The outlook for the Sumatran rhino is even more alarming: "poaching continues to be the main threat and habitat loss is exacerbating their decline. Fifteen years ago, Alan Rabinowitz highlighted the plight of the Sumatran rhino in an article entitled 'Helping a species go extinct: the Sumatran Rhino in Borneo'. Strong political will was required to arrest the rhino horn trade and to ensure that ex-situ breeding programmes were successful, but saving this species was not one of the priorities then." Clements adds that he supports an initiative in Malaysian Borneo that plans to bring the few remaining rhinos there together in a large enclosure to breed naturally.
Looking generally at biodiversity across the region, Clements says that "the extinction crisis in Southeast Asia is real." He points to a number of sources to prove this: "A study in 2003 predicted that around 21-48% of mammals in Southeast Asia will be extinct by 2100 and there’s been plenty of supporting evidence since then. For example, a study claimed that tigers, elephants, rhinos and tapirs are expected to vanish from many protected areas in Sumatra when its lowland forests are completely destroyed by 2036. On the same island, scientists also predict that the Sumatran orang-utan will be the first great ape to go extinct in the coming decades. In fact, based on the latest 2009 IUCN Red List, more mammals in Southeast Asia appear closer to extinction than ever."
What can be done to turn this around? Aside from attempting to save dwindling species and pockets of habitat on the ground, Clements spends a lot of his time on programs to instill a conservation ethic in others.
"At one of our project sites where we conducted a series of [conservation] awareness talks, we got several villagers to form a Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU) to chase away elephants and conduct anti-poaching patrols. Now they’re spreading the conservation message themselves in other villages through ‘Dikir Barat’, which is a cultural musical performance that involves singing in groups with some simple instruments," Clements says, adding that there are many ways to reach people about the importance of conservation. "Recently, we adopted a novel approach to raise conservation awareness through Islamic sermons. Soon, we will be conducting education talks with indigenous communities at our project site to highlight the plight of threatened mammals around their villages and perhaps even get them to form more WPUs. At the end of the day, we may not be able to turn poachers around. What we hope is that poachers may eventually succumb to peer pressure from a community that is increasingly exposed to the importance of conservation."
In a September 2009 interview Mongabay spoke with Clements about discovering new microsnails, the conservation of Malayan tigers and Sumatran rhinos, the bushmeat and palm oil threats, as well as his advice for future conservationists.
PERSONAL
Mongabay: How did you become interested in wildlife? What is your background?
Top: Towering limestone karsts, Bau, Sarawak, Malaysia. Bottom: Micro-landsnails less than 5mm from a karst in Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. Photos by: Reuben Clements.
Reuben Clements: There were two key moments that spiked my interest in wildlife conservation. The first was when I was 12. My dad brought me to a beach in Singapore one evening and I started collecting seashells during the low tide. From then on, I started beachcombing more regularly and became interested in molluscs and their multitude of shell forms and colour. Soon after, I started learning their scientific names from books and became an avid shell collector. The second turning point was at the age of 20. My friends brought me to limestone karsts in the jungles of Northern Peninsular Malaysia where we spent days searching for micro-landsnails. Not only was I awe-struck standing under towering karsts, I was also amazed by the bizarre and minute snail species that I found on the rocks, some of which were probably found in one place and nowhere else on Earth. On the way back, however, I witnessed several limestone hills being blasted away for cement, and with it, probably lots of endemic snails. I think that’s when my conservation ethic first grew and I stopped collecting shells soon after. When I returned to Singapore, I withdrew my original university application to the faculty of engineering and switched to a degree in biology because I wanted to learn more about tropical biodiversity and conservation. Ironically, my collection phase was probably instrumental in developing an appreciation for nature and wildlife conservation!
Mongabay: How did your education at the National University of Singapore prepare you to succeed in conservation biology?
Top: remant peat swamp, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia. Bottom: A cave chamber in the Gelanggi karst, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. Photos by: Reuben Clements.
Reuben Clements: I was lucky that the undergraduate biology modules still included elements of taxonomy, botany and zoology. It’s a pity that the current curriculum places more emphasis on molecular biology than natural history. I owe a great deal to Professor Daiqin Li for taking me into his lab as an honours student, and to Professors Navjot Sodhi and Peter Ng for allowing me to work on a topic that they were not familiar with – limestone karst and mollusc conservation. It was thrilling to return to the very same limestone karsts I saw when I was 20, this time as a researcher and not a collector! During this period, I caught the ‘research bug’ from these guys and managed to hone my scientific writing skills. There were also numerous opportunities to participate in several expeditions to poorly-explored rainforests, caves and peat swamps to find elusive organisms ranging from the world’s smallest vertebrate (a fish called Paedocypris) to the world’s largest flower (Rafflesia). During these trips to Malaysia and Indonesia, I got a first-hand glimpse of threats to biodiversity and gained a better understanding of conservation issues within the region. So the research culture and field experiences accumulated during my MSc candidature has really placed me in a good stead to succeed as a conservation scientist.
Mongabay: What is it like to work with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Malaysia, the world’s largest conservation organization?
Reuben Clements: It’s been a blast! Working for WWF-Malaysia has given me an invaluable perspective on real-world conservation. That’s something I could never get if I stayed on in the university. I have been really fortunate to work with a team of like-minded and passionate individuals. Trekking into remote forests in search of tigers, elephants and other large mammals, coming face to face with nomadic indigenous communities and armed poachers, meeting passionate field staff throughout our project sites in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, travelling to offices such as Thailand and Indonesia to develop tiger and rhino conservation strategies with experts from the WWF network – all these moments have made it an amazing and thoroughly fulfilling adventure.
THE MALAYAN TIGER AND THE SUMATRAN RHINO
Chatting with nomadic indigenous people, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia.
Mongabay: How are Malayan tigers faring in Malaysia? Why are they considered to be the next tiger subspecies most likely to go extinct?
Reuben Clements: Tigers face an uncertain future in Malaysia. The population may be less than 500. But this is just an estimate. So far, there have only been a couple of scientifically defensible camera-trapping surveys; these have yielded reasonable population densities of around 2-3 tigers/100km2. Nevertheless, more of these surveys need to be conducted, particularly across the entire the landscape to assess the true conservation status of the Malayan tiger. In contrast, the next tiger subspecies to go extinct would probably be the Sumatran tiger.
Mongabay: What needs to be done to save the species?
Reuben Clements: That can really be answered in a 10-page essay, but I’ll be brief! Scientists have already identified poaching to be the most immediate threat to the survival of wild tigers. For a start, governments in tiger range states need to recognize this threat and commit to the deployment of more anti-poaching and intelligence units in and around protected areas and selectively-logged forests to reduce poaching rates of tigers and tiger prey. Transboundary enforcement efforts need to be stepped up to reduce the rampant trade of tigers and their body parts flowing through porous borders. Governments and NGOs need to form alliances and develop conservation strategies that are implemented and regularly monitored. A model to follow would be the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT), which is a coalition made up of four NGOs with support from the government (www.malayantiger.net). The government with support from MYCAT has also come up with the National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia, which details 80 activities to be implemented by government agencies and MYCAT partners in order to double wild populations by 2020. Government and private companies that are driving infrastructure development (e.g., construction of roads) and the clear-felling of natural forests for timber and agriculture plantations need to be engaged by conservationists, who can try and transform business practices in order to mitigate or prevent potentially disastrous impacts on tiger habitats. With increased political will and improvement in public attitudes towards wildlife conservation, I think there’s a fighting chance to prevent the tiger from going extinct.
Mongabay: Is it difficult to track tigers? Have you ever had any close encounters with the great cat?
Tiger pugmark recorded from a monitoring survey in Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by: WWF-Malaysia.
Reuben Clements: When it comes to tracking tigers, it really depends on where you are. If you’re walking in an undisturbed primary forest with lots of leaf litter on the ground, it may be difficult to find tiger pugmarks. But if you’re walking along logging roads, it’s easier to find the pugmarks in the mud. Most of the tigers in our project sites have been caught on film by our camera traps (pic8). However, seeing a tiger is all about being in the right place at the right time. I guess I’m unlucky (or lucky) not to have seen one yet. The most experienced tiger field biologist in my team has also never seen one despite conducting tiger surveys in remote forests for five years!
Mongabay: There are less than 300 Sumatra Rhinos in the world and only 30 or so Bornean Rhinoceroses left. How did things get so bad?
Reuben Clements: Well if rhino horns for traditional Chinese medicine didn’t fetch as much as it does in the black market, I think there would be more Sumatran rhinos (pic9) around. Poaching continues to be the main threat and habitat loss is exacerbating their decline. Fifteen years ago, Alan Rabinowitz highlighted the plight of the Sumatran rhino in an article entitled "Helping a species go extinct: the Sumatran Rhino in Borneo". Strong political will was required to arrest the rhino horn trade and to ensure that ex-situ breeding programmes were successful, but saving this species was not one of the priorities then.
Mongabay.com is an environmental science and conservation news website.
