SAWEN Secretariat held the Seventh EC Meeting

The SAWEN Secretariat organized Seventh Executive Committee Meeting of SAWEN on 31 March 2021 in a virtual platform provided by INTERPOL in chairpersonship of Deepak Kumar Kharal, PhD, Chief Enforcement Coordinator of SAWEN. Principal and secondary focal persons and Secretariat staff were participated in the Meeting. The Meeting was facilitated by Mr. Pradeep Bhattarai, Senior Environment Officer at the SAWEN Secretariat.

In the first session of the Meeting, Mr. Bhattarai briefly shared the progress on previous EC Meeting decisions, activities carried out by the Secretariat, financial status and forthcoming activities in coming days reflecting the existing situation resulted from COVID 19 in South Asia. Focal Persons highlighted on wildlife crime status; changes in major Illegal wildlife trade routes and hotspots; emerging of illegal trade of new species; success stories in combating wildlife crime; major achievements in policy and implementation level; priority actions in coming years along with possible interventions from the Secretariat. Second part of the Meeting witnessed discussion on Strategic Action Plan of SAWEN, enrichment of SAWEN Endowment Fund, organizing capacity building and enforcement support activities with financial support from INTERPOL/USAID and other administrative as well as policy level interventions.

First and Second EC Meeting were held in 2016 in Bangladesh, Third in 2017 in Nepal, Fourth in 2018 in Kolkata, India, Fifth in 2019 in Maldives, Sixth in 2020 in Sri Lanka. All the SAWEN member countries, beside Sri Lanka, participated in the Meeting held virtually. The Meeting was closed with brief remarks by the Focal Persons.