Hello everyone, 

I’m Ann, the founder and director of Justice for Wildlife Malaysia . We are passionate about wildlife conservation here in Malaysia, focusing on the critical links between law, science, and the criminal justice system to fight wildlife crime. 

It’s been a little while since I last shared updates. Work has kept me busy, and 2025 has been a very challenging year for us at JWM. Despite everything, we’ve kept going – and I want to thank our friends, donors, and supporters who believe in our mission and continue to stand by us. Your trust means a lot, considering the nature of work we are doing.  

We might not have glamorous camera trap images of wildlife to share, or interesting forest patrol stories to pique your interest enough to look this way and think “wow, that’s cool“. Our work involves court documents, case briefs, and charge sheets – things that aren’t very exciting to most. Our work revolves around the monotonous nature of court proceedings and bureaucratic complexities, not to mention pages and pages of legislation. But these are vital for wildlife; they matter in court and help bring justice for wildlife in Malaysia.

Recently, we have been reflecting on our roles in this. Our court monitoring work and building capabilities with law enforcement officers have prompted us to ask important questions: What is the true purpose of what we’re doing?

Is it simply to catch wrongdoers?

Is it to ensure they face jail?

Or are we really aiming to stop wildlife crime altogether?

These are complex questions, and a simple yes-or-no doesn’t quite capture the bigger picture. We’ve come to see that wildlife crime often involves deeper, systemic issues, and we’re eager to explore those.

Our focus now is on one big idea – reform.

This is a bold vision. Not everyone agrees, and some, if not most, prefer punitive measures.

We see things differently.

While punitive measures may work in some cases, they often don’t foster real change or help rehabilitate offenders; in the context of wildlife crime, they are merely retributive.

Is that truly justice?

To move forward, we need your support. There’s much research and planning involved in developing effective interventions. As a small, grassroots NGO based in Malaysia, we’ve stretched ourselves to use the criminal justice system to protect wildlife as best we can. Funding is getting harder to secure, so we’re exploring alternative sources – private donors and the wider community. We’ve also formed partnerships with a local company to kick off our outreach efforts and are collaborating with a talented local illustrator to help amplify our message.

Now, we’re reaching out because we need YOU.

We’re aiming to raise RM200,000 (about ~USD 50,000) to launch this vital reform initiative and enhance our current efforts. This is not a small number (we need about MYR 1 mil per year to sustain existing activities, on top of this), but we do what we can.

To contribute, head over to https://bit.ly/PublicFund. For those of you based in Malaysia, you can contribute via DuitNow by scanning this QR code

This funding will support operations, research, field interviews, building capabilities, and drafting work; and we are happy to share our the stories of our journey and the outcome of it with all of you.

We’re ambitious, but realistic – success might take some time, but we’re committed to this journey. We understand the challenges that come with this, but I think we are ready.

We are also happy to collaborate with other organisations or companies interested in funding parts of our work, be it monetary or in-kind. Please feel free to reach out, and we would be glad to discuss.

Thanks for reading, guys. For those donating, thanks for believing in us and the work we’re doing.