KATHMANDU, MAY 19 -
The first meeting of South Asia Expert Group on Illegal Wildlife Trade wound up on Wednesday, forming a regional network to curb the illegal trade of wildlife in South Asia and other parts of the world.

Experts from eight SAARC countries have agreed to establish the secretariat of South Asia Wildlife Enforc-ement Network (SAWEN) to check poaching in the region.

Over 50 experts from the SAARC member nations, including representatives of CITES Management Authority, customs and police as well as other agencies working in the field of wildlife law enforcement, partook in the three-day meeting that started from Monday.

The main aim of the meeting was to strengthen regional cooperation among the eight countries in combating illegal trade of wild animals and plant species and to form a regional network on wildlife law enforcement.

Megh Bahadur Pandey, Deputy Director General of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), said the meeting has agreed the structure, functions and operational parameters of SAWEN, including ideas for developing multilateral activities based on strong inter-agency cooperation at national levels.

In a boost to the SAWEAN road map, the Nepal government has agreed to act as an interim coordinator of the network for the next six months.

The participants also united on enhancing the capacity of wildlife law enforcement agencies in a bid to haunt poachers and take strong actions against them. 

“Cooperation and coordination between the government agencies and support of the international agencies is essential to effectively tackle illegal wildlife trade,” said Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara before the concluding ceremony of the meeting. “Nepal is fully committed to control wildlife crime and foster regional cooperation through SAWEN,” he added.

More than 50 participants were invited at the meeting to share their expertise on wildlife law enforcement to help prioritise issues of immediate concerns. South Asia is a home to a unique array of animal and plant species such as tigers and other Asian big cats, rhinos, marine and freshwater turtles, pangolins and Red Sanders.

However, taking advantage of the biodiversity wealth, poachers have put these animals on their hit list.

Posted on: 2010-05-20 07:50

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