Wanted: Sunbear Slaughterer in East Borneo

Protection of Forest & Fauna (PROFAUNA) Indonesia received reports from people regarding a photo of a sunbear killing, posted on Facebook by a user named Ronal Cristoper Ronal. In the photo posted on 24 September 2015, Ronal and two other men were disembowling a sunbear in a river. The horrid photo was captioned "tngkapan hri ini" ("today's catch"). According to his Facebook bio, Ronal works in the Population and Civil Registration of Tenggarong, East Borneo.

The Sunbear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest bear species in the world. Today, its population is dwindling due to poaching, trade, and habitat loss. The Sunbear is protected by international conservation organizations, and also protected by the law in Indonesia. Therefore, it is strongly forbidden to be hunted or killed. Whoever violates this law is liable to a 5 years of prison and IDR 100 million fines.

In 2014, the police of Berau, East Borneo, arrested a sunbear killer who also posted a photo of himself skinning the bear.  The user named Ricky Werang and his friends involved were arrested by the police. This success owed to the active participation of everybody who actively gave information and reports, including the ones sent through PROFAUNA, so that the investigation could run faster.

Read about last year's case here: http://www.profauna.net/en/content/facebook-sunbear-got-decorticated-and-eaten-berau-east-borneo#.VgYLYdKqqko

PROFAUNA will file this case to the authority. If you happen to hold any information that can help this investigation, please contact us at our email: profauna@profauna.net or our SMS center at +6281336657164, +6281615711592.