Wednesday 6 February 2008

"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," TRAFFIC's Global Programme Co-ordinator, Roland Melisch said.

The South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) have agreed to a series of joint actions, including creating an experts group and developing a regional strategic plan to tackle wildlife trade.

Nepal and TRAFFIC pushing for change
The decision was reached at the First Regional Workshop on the South Asia Wildlife Trade Initiative, which was organised by the Nepal Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (SACEP), WWF Nepal and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

The South Asia region is home to a host of biological diversity and rich terrestrial, freshwater and marine resources.

However, illegal trade and overexploitation of wild animals and plants poses a major challenge to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the region.

Recognising this challenge, Ministers at the Tenth Meeting of the Governing Council of SACEP, on 25th January 2007, urged for the development of a work programme to combat illegal trade in wild species and their products, and help strengthen enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in the region.

Legislation and intelligence boost
The meeting participants agreed for:

• Increased co-operation and co-ordination;
• effective legislation, policies and law enforcement;
• sharing knowledge and effective dissemination of information;
• sustainability of legal trade and livelihoods security and;
• intelligence networks and early warning systems and capacity building.

The decisions of this workshop will be presented for endorsement at Ministerial level at the Eleventh Meeting of the Governing Council of SACEP taking place later this year in New Delhi, India.