It's 10.45pm and Eugene Lee is only just starting to eat his dinner. "Sorry, I just got back from Me-lah-ka," he says, putting down a glass of sugarcane. His accent is unmistakably Malaysian but has hints of Americana, where he spent 12 years of his life.

Six years at Middlebury College and Yale University getting a Bachelors and Masters in environmental studies, three years working with WWF-US and two years in Chile where he picked up a penchant for the Andes, sustainable mining projects and the Spanish language. This 34-year old Malaysian has certainly come a long way since his high school days at La Salle Boys School in Petaling Jaya.

TRAFFIC Southeast Asia

Lee is the Regional Projects Co-ordinator at TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and has spent the last two days in Melaka attending a WWF workshop on marine turtle conservation. Just one of the many responsibilities of TRAFFIC the wildlife trade monitoring network that works to ensure trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC was established in 1976 in the UK and has 22 offices around the world. Since joining TRAFFIC, Lee has worked on a variety of projects such as marine turtle conservation, wildlife and timber trade in West Kalimantan and the protection of one of Malaysia's most endangered animals the tiger.

The world's tiger population stands at 5,000 to 7,000. This may seem like a significant number but the fact is a mere 100 years ago, there were as many as 100,000 tigers in the wild and eight sub-species. Since then, three sub-species are extinct and a fourth is barely hanging on. Today's tigers that are living in fragmented forests, encountering increased levels of human conflict and according to biologists, will not survive in the long-term if these conditions are allowed to continue.

In Malaysia alone, the population of tigers has dropped from 3,000 to about 450 in the last fifty years. According to Lee, the main cause of this decline is loss of habitat and poaching. "I can't say which contributes more 'cos if you ask ten different people, maybe five would say loss of habitat and the other five would say poaching," he explains. "But for me it would be loss of habitatbut only because loss of habitat is an indirect cause of many other things."

Tigers need large areas to live in. However, the proliferation of rubber plantations, oil palm estates and human settlements is eating into the tiger's habitat. This results in increased human-tiger conflict. If you look at it closely, it's actually a vicious cycle. Humans spill into tiger territory. Tigers prey on livestock. Humans shoot tiger. Injured tigers cannot hunt and must again resort to eating livestock, and in some cases, humans. The loss of habitat also leads to other problems such as loss of food supply as tigers and humans compete for the same prey sambar deer and wild boar.

Karma in tiger country

"Poaching is a also a very big factor," says Lee. "There is a huge market for tiger parts, almost every part of the tiger can be used for something or other." Tiger penis is used as an aphrodisiac, skin for decoration and tiger bones for rheumatism and arthritis. Substitutes exist, of course, such as bones of other animals like dogs. But it isn't easy to get consumers to make the switch. "Here's a medicine that has tiger bone and here's one made of dog," Lee explains. "Of course people would rather go for the tiger bone."

When demand flourishes, poaching activities step up accordingly. Like most illegal acts, it is hard to identify the culprits due to a lack of data and hard facts. One thing for sure is that the activity also stems from beyond national borders. "Sometimes organised gangs come in from Thailand and Cambodia," informs Lee. "These guys have been known to come in big groups and are armed even the police are afraid of them."

If the authorities roughly know who these poachers are and how they operate, why is it so hard to catch them? "Catching is one thing, convicting is another," says Lee. One of the main problems (which is common in many countries) is inadequate legislation. "Enforcement is weak (and) penalties are too light," Lee says. In Malaysia, the penalty for being caught with a tiger is RM15,000 and/or five years in jail. But poachers rarely get the full amount as poaching and illegal wildlife trading is not regarded as a serious crime. Plus the fact that influential and affluent middlemen higher up the chain can often find ways for their poachers to escape minimally scathed.

There are many loopholes in the law governing wildlife, especially in Peninsular Malaysia. That's why the Malaysian government has been urged by the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Secretariat to amend its laws - such as the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972, which is the primary legislation pertaining to wildlife issues in Peninsular Malaysia .

Sabah and Sarawak have their own wildlife protection act and compared to the Peninsular's have fewer loopholes. On the whole however, "Malaysia should advocate for harsher penalties," Lee says. He states the recent SPCA case as an example. The SPCA is calling for an increase in fines for cruelty to animals, which currently stands at a mere RM200. "It's the same issue with poaching," Lee says. "In this business, the rewards are so great, it's worth the risk. In fact, some analysts claim the low penalties are acting as an incentive to criminals, rather than a deterrent.

Without a doubt, tigers are an extremely threatened species. But there are certain people who don't see the importance of conservation. After all, if there are no more tigers, so what? Some people have never even seen a tiger before but that hasn't affected their lives. "Sure, there may be other issues to worry about," argues Lee. "But for one thing, they'll never get to see one of the most majestic animals on earth."

Another consequence is the ecological imbalance that might occur. "The tiger is a top predator," explains Lee. "If you remove it, you might end up with massive populations of wild boar and sambar deer, which in turn may result in the excessive destruction of peoples' crops and plants. Another example: if you remove snakes in some places, there could be an increase in rats and a subsequent increased spread of diseases."

The key to solving this issue with tigers is knowledge and awareness. "There is a lack of knowledge at all levels," states the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) website. This includes everyone from educators and government authorities to students and farmers, which is why one of the main programmes of WCS is education - how to live with tigers, recognizing the tiger's endangered state and helping people to understand that tigers are not 'the enemy'. According to WCS, the solution is to change human behaviour by improving livestock management, adapting to tiger habits and understanding the repercussions of adverse actions.

Follow the turtles!

Whether it's conservation or education, knowledge plays a vital role. The marine turtle case serves as a good example. "Did you know that marine turtles always return to nest at the very same beach where they were born?" Lee says. "They have an amazing sense of direction!"

"And once they're born, they head straight to the sea and they start swimming and swimming for three to five days - non-stop!" he says, motioning with his hands. Lee's passion is so infectious I can almost see the turtles paddling. "They just swim and swim and they don't eat for these three to five days," Lee explains - and here is the point of his story.

When people do a turtle conservation project and put newly-hatched turtles into a tank, they won't eat for the first three to five days, living purely off their reserves. During this time, the turtles will be constantly swimming. If they are not released shortly after hatching, chances are they'll die because they won't have the reserves to swim out far enough to the safety of the open sea.

Little slices of information like these are crucial to the success of any conservation effort. There used to be thousands of leatherback turtles nesting in Terengganu but now there are only a handful. This number is expected to decline with an expanding tourism industry and large-scale resorts being built right near the beach. Newly hatched turtles can get disorientated by the bright lights and may head towards the road or a restaurant, instead of to the sea.

Okay, we have digressed. And I must admit that I too, have been swept away by Lee's enthusiasm for wildlife trivia. We move on to one last question: captive tigers. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? "It's a bad thing," states Lee. Which means, places like the 'Temple of Tigers' in Thailand, which houses 16 tigers in a monastery may not be such a good idea. "Being wild creatures, the tigers could snap at anytime," Lee explains. But could it be of value to veterinary science or tiger research? "A zoo would be better," Lee says. "They can take care of medical needs."

Zoos however, are not a long-term solution. The Melaka Zoo is the largest captive breeding facility for tigers in Malaysia and many captured animals have been brought there. But the zoo already holds 22 tigers and is close to maximum capacity. So what do you do with these animals?

Ideally, cubs should be re-introduced into the wild but the trouble is they would not have the skills to fend for themselves. One solution could be to place the wild mother (if available) in a separate enclosure with natural forest and release natural prey species into the area. In this near-natural environment, the mother can train her cubs to hunt and slowly learn to fend for themselves. Of course, this is much easier said than done and would present its own set of complexities.

Why tigers?

At every stage of conservation, new problems keep cropping up. Saving the tigers requires a concerted effort and Malaysia's tiger conservationists have responded to this with the establishment of MYCAT (Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers) which brings together the expertise of both the government's Department of Wildlife and National Parks and non-governmental conservation organisations.

The world is rife with so many other issues poverty, under-development, child abuse, education. Why do people like Lee dedicate their lives to saving animals? "It's my passion," he says. "I mean, someone's got to save them." Does he like animals more than people? A vegetarian, Lee finishes his fish-ball noodle (without the fish-ball), before replying. "Sometimes," he says with a smile.

AMY TAN is a freelance writer based in Kuala Lumpur.