Over the next six months, it will focus on coordinating key information and identifying further resources and expertise from member countries to develop joint operations, training programs, communication plans and fund-raising to enable the network to begin interdicting major trafficking activities. [break]
Bhutan has offered to host the next meeting of SAWEN.
Reiterating their commitment on joint-action against wildlife trade, experts from South Asia laid the foundation for SAWEN as a coordinated regional response to combat illegal poaching and trafficking on Wednesday.
Concluding the three-day meeting, the seven member countries agreed to establish a secretariat and chart a work program for the network. The historic meeting was convened with the objective of helping wildlife law enforcement agencies to become better organized than the criminals.
As a collaborative mechanism, the Experts Group agreed that an action-oriented approach under the newly formed SAWEN should be pursued without delay.
The meeting also agreed on the structure, functions and operational parameters for SAWEN, including ideas for developing multilateral activities based on strong inter-agency cooperation at the national level.
“Cooperation and coordination between the government agencies supported by their international counterparts is of utmost importance to effectively tackle illegal wildlife trade,” Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara said while addressing the meeting. “Nepal is fully committed to control wildlife crime and foster regional cooperation through SAWEN.”
More than 50 participants, including CITES Management Authority, customs, police and other agencies, were invited at the meeting to share their expertise on wildlife law enforcement to help prioritize issues of immediate concern, Deputy Director General of Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation Megh Bahadur Pandey informed.
South Asia covers 2.5 percent of the world geographical area. India and Nepal together contain 10 percent of the global bio-diversity area. It is a habitat to tigers and other Asian big cats, rhino, marine and freshwater turtles, pangolins and Red Sanders. The participants said that it is ironic that this very biodiversity richness makes the region a target for poachers and traffickers of wildlife.
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