06 Feb
2008 - Kathmandu, Nepal – All eight South
Asian nations have agreed to step up cooperation
in addressing wildlife trade problems in
the area.
The region, home to
such rare and prized species as tigers,
Asiatic lions, snow leopards, Asian elephants
and one-horned rhinoceroses, is recognized
as one of the prime targets of international
organized wildlife crime networks.
Wildlife trade officials
from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,
the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
met in Kathmandu last week and defined a
series of joint actions under the new South
Asia Wildlife Trade Initiative (SAWTI).
The direction for the
initiative was given by ministers from the
eight nations, at the Tenth Meeting of Governing
Council for the South Asia Co-operative
Environment Programme (SACEP) last year.
“The agreement reached
on SAWTI puts in place the foundations for
a cooperative effort to crack down on illegal
trade and to improve the management of wild
animals and plants that can be legally traded
under national laws in the region,” said
SACEP Director-General Dr Arvind A. Boaz.
SAWTI is charged with
developing a South Asia Regional Strategic
Plan on Wildlife Trade for the period 2008-2013.
The Kathmandu workshop - organised by the
Nepal Ministry of Environment, Science and
Technology, SACEP, WWF Nepal and TRAFFIC
- also agreed on the establishment of a
South Asia Experts Group on Wildlife Trade.
The group will examine cooperation and coordination
between countries and agencies, effective
legislation, policies and law enforcement,
the sustainability of the legal trade and
livelihood security for those engaged in
it, and improving intelligence networks
and early warning systems.
“It is very encouraging
to see this level of regional cooperation
developing on a pernicious trade and criminal
networks that harms species populations
and robs communities of the benefits they
could enjoy from their biodiversity,"
said WWF International’s Species Programme
Director, Dr Sue Lieberman.
WWF Nepal’s Country
Director, Anil Manandhar, said that the
greatest challenge was combating the highly
organised illegal trade networks between
poachers, domestic traders and international
traders of wildlife products, combined with
highly porous borders between some countries.
“No single nation can control such illegal
activities alone," Manandhar said.
The Senior Officer,
Anti-smuggling, fraud and organized crime,
at the Secretariat for the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Mr John
Sellar, also welcomed the Initiative. “We
look forward to cooperating with SAWTI,
which we believe offers considerable potential
in combating illegal trade in wildlife,
whilst also working to ensure that legal
trade in wildlife is sustainable and benefits
local communities in this part of the world.”
Global Programme Coordinator
for the wildlife trade network TRAFFIC,
Roland Melisch, said that international
cooperation – and, in particular, regional
cooperation – is absolutely essential in
tackling the challenges of wildlife trade.
“TRAFFIC would certainly
like to applaud the initiative of all the
eight countries of South Asia in taking
this important step of coming together as
a region and seeking to jointly address
the pressing issues of ensuring sustainable
wildlife use and trade and eliminating the
problem of illegal poaching and trade,”
Melisch said.
Closing the workshop,
Nepal’s Honourable Minister for Environment,
Science and Technology, Farmullah Mansoor,
confirmed the Government of Nepal’s commitment
towards combating the illegal wildlife trade
in the region. Nepal currently holds the
chair position of SACEP.
"SAWTI is the first
wildlife trade initiative of its kind in
South Asia and SACEP is confident it will
lead to further commitment in the region,
and closer engagement among neighbours to
effectively address wildlife trade problems,"
Dr Boaz concluded.
Notes:
The South Asia region
is rich in biological diversity, being home
to over 15% of the world’s flora and 12%
of its fauna, including some of the most
endangered species in the planet such as
the tiger, Asiatic lion, snow leopard, Asian
elephant and one-horned rhinoceros. Because
of this richness in biodiversity, South
Asia has been one of the prime targets of
international organized wildlife crime networks.
For example, poaching has reduced Nepal's
rhino population by more than 30 per cent.
In one of the largest ever seizure of big
cat skins in India, enforcement authorities
in 2000 seized 4 tiger skins, 70 leopard
skins, 221 blackbuck skins, 18,000 leopard
claws, 150 kgs of leopard and tiger bone,
132 tiger claws, 2 leopard teeth and one
dried leopard penis from poachers in Khaga
in the North Indian State of Uttar Pradesh.
TRAFFIC is a key strategic
partner in a number of similar regional
efforts worldwide. This includes the inter-governmental
Regional Action Plan and its Wildlife Enforcement
Network that has been established by the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and the development of the European Community
Action Plan on CITES Enforcement. TRAFFIC
is also a member of the Coalition Against
Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT), a global initiative
comprising governments and non-governmental
organisations and aimed at focussing public
and political attention and resources on
ending the illegal trade in wildlife and
wildlife products.
The decisions of this
workshop will be presented for the endorsement
at Ministerial level at the Eleventh Meeting
of the Governing Council of SACEP taking
place later this year in New Delhi, India.
Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC International
Sanjib Chaudhary, Communications Officer
