KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — Malaysia is trying its best to safeguard the country’s flora and fauna, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

However, he said it is not an easy task due to many factors including poaching activities in the country’s forests. 

"All over the world, many creatures have disappeared despite the efforts taken. It is not an easy thing to do. 

"For example, we have poachers who come into Malaysia to steal our tigers and for elephants’ tusks, thus killing the rare elephants that we have,” he said during a Question and Answer session at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Praxis’ conference "Malaysia Beyond 2020”, here today. 

The two-day conference which started today is aimed at reviewing progress made by Malaysia in almost 30 years since Vision 2020 to turn the country into a developed nation by 2020 was first announced in 1991.

According to Dr Mahathir, it is not easy to police forest areas especially when the land size is huge. 

"People need to have living space, we need to earn something from our land, and in the process, some of these flora and fauna might be endangered. 

"But we are trying to keep them alive. In Malaysia today, we are even trying to safeguard animals that are not indigenous to Malaysia. That’s how much we care about flora and fauna in Malaysia,” he added. — Bernama