Vision

Our vision is to ensure that globally threatened large mammal species in Malaysia are safeguarded through management interventions that support the conservation and restoration of their habitats and the recovery of their populations.
‍

Mission

We will act to identify small, fragmented or declining populations of globally threatened large mammals, and work on habitat enrichment, habitat connectivity and other management interventions to reverse such population declines.
‍

Strategy

We will work with partners and supporters in the implementation of specific and customized priority programmes to recover and manage globally threatened large mammal species and their habitats in Malaysia. We will apply our expertise in the provision of interventions that support sustainability in nutrition, reproduction and demography of globally threatened large mammals in Malaysia.

Profiles

DATUK DR JOHN PAYNE

Chief Executive Officer

John Payne started his working life with two powerful lessons. In 1976, one of the biggest mast fruiting years occurred in Peninsular Malaysia. The lesson was: population density of rare animal species is determined by the years with the least leaf and fruit production. Years with lots of fruits, and every fruiting season, are anomalies that support enhanced reproduction, the results of which plummet during very wet or very dry years. In 1977, he joined an expedition to survey for Sumatran rhinos in the proposed Endau-Rompin Park. He saw that people were tempted to record tapir footprints as rhino footprints. Lesson: people believe what they want to believe, not what is true. A different but similar lesson: if your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. After many such lessons learned, up to the extinction of the Hairy rhinoceros in Malaysia in 2019, he has oriented BORA to become an NGO that focuses on the recovery of endangered and rare species - by whatever ethical means are available.

Programme Director

DR ZAINAL ZAHARI ZAINUDDIN

Dr Zainal Zahari Zainuddin started off towards being an accountant, but switched to veterinary medicine, joining the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Peninsular Malaysia in 1985. Since then, he has developed expertise in surveying, capture, translocation, husbandry and breeding of Malayan tiger, elephant, Hairy rhinoceros, Malayan seladang, Malay tapir and Bornean banteng. After the death of the last rhinos in Malaysia, due to age-related pathologies, he has directed his efforts into developing expertise in the breeding of native plants, with an emphasis on the genus Ficus. Together with BORA staff at Tabin Wildlife Reserve, he established the Sabah Ficus Germplasm Centre which is an invaluable resource for the restoration of natural forest in Sabah.

‍