South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) in collaboration with the Government of Maldives organized a General Meeting of SAWEN in Malé, Maldives. The Meeting was held from 02 to 03 November 2022 with support of INTERPOL and USAID. Delegates from the SAWEN member countries and representatives of support organizations were participated in the Meeting.

Inaugurating the Meeting, Mr. Ali Majid, honourable deputy minister of Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, Maldives, shared the commitment of the Government of Maldives in combating wildlife crime in the region. Recognizing the transborder nature of wildlife crime, honourable minister urged all the member countries to utilize SAWEN as common platform and strengthen this cooperative mechanism as envisioned. Mr. Patrick Gan, Director of Regional Environment, Science, Technology and Health Office for South Asia, US Embassy Nepal, stressed on the different supports provided by the US State Government to curb wildlife crime and opined to work with SAWEN in future as well.  Mr. Ibrahim Naeem, SAWEN Focal Person of Maldives and Director General of Environmental Protection Agency, Maldives welcomed all the participants of the program and emphasized the essence ‘wildlife have values when they are alive’ exemplifying the Maldivian practices. Closing the inaugural program, chair of the program Dr. Maheshwar Dhakal, Chief Enforcement Coordinator of SAWEN, highlighted the support of the member countries in the fight against wildlife crime. Sharing the recently received financial support from the Government of Bangladesh, Dr. Dhakal requested other member countries to pledge similar support in the SAWEN endowment fund and reinforce SAWEN at the fullest.

The General Meeting of SAWEN provided an ample forum to discuss about wildlife crime in the region among delegates of the member countries and representatives of the support organizations working in South Asia region. The member countries shared their status of wildlife crime and controlling efforts to minimize such crime utilizing various means of approaches including law and policy formulation and amendment; use of technological advancement; and stringent enforcement actions. The Meeting outlined the probable actions and undertakings to be carried out by SAWEN as a coordination and cooperation body to support wildlife law enforcement. The Government of Nepal shared a study result on “Illegal wildlife trade routes and wildlife crime hotspots in Nepal” during the meeting. The study was carried out by the SAWEN Secretariat under HN/ZSL/SAWEN program with support of IWT challenge fund.

The Meeting discussed on “SAWEN Strategic Plan 2022-2026” and opened a new arena for future collaborative actions together with focused areas and themes supported by implementation plan. The Meeting underscored resourceful Secretariat; financially sustainable sources to SAWEN; enhanced collaboration and cooperation; utilization of technological innovations as way forward to SAWEN. Facilitating the General Meeting, Mr. Pradeep Bhattarai, Senior Environment Officer, shared regional wildlife crime scenario, proposed institutional set up and overall reflection of the Strategy. 

Tenth Executive Committee (EC) Meeting of SAWEN was held on 03 November 2022 coinciding with the General Meeting. The EC Meeting discussed on wider aspects of administrative and policy matters including finalizing the recruitment process of the first Secretary General, financial guideline etc.

The two days Meeting was concluded with brief remarks by the SAWEN Focal Persons, representatives of support organizations and Chief Enforcement Coordinator of SAWEN.