SAWEN organized a Virtual Interaction Program

The SAWEN secretariat organized a webinar entitled on 'Transnational Cooperation in Wildlife Crime Control' on 28 March 2023. The webinar aimed to discuss transnational cooperation systems and mechanisms to control wildlife crime. The programme created a platform to share and exchange of practices in transnational cooperation applied to minimize the wildlife crime activities in global arena. Government Officials, representatives of support organizations and experts were participated in the webinar.

Opening the webinar, Dr. Maheshwor Dhakal, Chief Enforcement Coordinator (CEC) of SAWEN welcomed all the participants, expert speakers and highlighted the importance of programme. Dr. Dhakal recalled the wider aspects of cooperation in the fight against wildlife crime along with strengths and opportunities with needed strategic interventions. Likewise, Dr. Rajesh Gopal, Secretary General, Global Tiger Forum; Mr. David Karanja MIGWI, Operations Coordinator for Wildlife Crime, INTERPOL; Ms. Elisabeth Seidl, Associate Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, UNODC were guest speakers of the programme.

Mr. Rohit Singh, Director, Wildlife Enforcement and Zero Poaching, WWF facilitated the webinar. Following the presentations of guest speakers, an active discussion session was held bringing together stakeholders working in wildlife crime control. The session emphasized enhancing cooperation at intra-national and inter-national levels and the need to mainstream the approach. Reflecting the trans-national nature of wildlife crime, all the speakers stressed on information and intelligence sharing; enhanced bilateral or multilateral cooperation; and adoption of successful initiatives.

The program was organized in collaboration with WWF and TRAFFIC under INL Funding.