KATHMANDU, NEPAL, 30 May 2022: South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) in collaboration with INTERPOL organized a "Wildlife Crime Standard Enforcement Training" from 23 to 27 May 2022 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The main objective of the training was to enhance the investigative capacity of law enforcement officers in order to build strong case package for better prosecution based on standard practices. Altogether, 21 officials from Seven of the SAWEN Member Countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – were participated in the training.

Opening the training program, the Chief Guest of the inaugural program, Honourable Minister, Ramsahay Prasad Yadav, Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoFE), Nepal shared ranges of interventions carried out by the Government of Nepal to achieve success in biodiversity conservation including people to prime minister approach in wildlife crime control; community forestry in people's participation; Zero Poaching of one-horned rhinoceros; strong law enforcement and more. Honourable Minister highlighted the importance of SAWEN as a regional intergovernmental organization and committed to support SAWEN in the Endowment Fund.

In the brief opening ceremony of the program, Dr. Ram Chandra Kandel, Chief Enforcement Coordinator of SAWEN delivered welcome remarks and recalled that the capacity building of law enforcement agencies is one of the major objectives of SAWEN that are internalizing since the formal launch of SAWEN. Dr. Kandel requested all the member countries' participants to convey the message to support in SAWEN Endowment Fund and the same was for honorouble minister from the Government of Nepal.

Facilitator of the program, Mr. Pradeep Bhattarai, Senior Environment Officer, SAWEN outlined the course objectives that will be covered during five-days training. In the inaugural program, representatives of various organizations were present such as from the Departments under MoFE, Nepal, Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal Army, Nepal Police (CIB and NCB), UNODC, INTERPOL, USAID, NTNC, BCN Nepal, and also Media.

The course was focused in wildlife crime investigation covering elements of a crime; intent and motivation; choosing a strategy; investigation models; golden hour of investigation; intelligence evaluation; crime scene investigation; interview techniques; etc. Field based exercise was also crucial part of the training. Representation of different law enforcement agencies such as Wildlife/Forest, Customs, and Police reflected the training as a holistically participated program from South Asia. The Training was facilitated by Mr. Alan Blaney from Focus UK Ltd.

Training participants also visited the SAWEN Office. Activities carried out by SAWEN; ongoing program including under SAWEN/INTERPOL/USAID programme and also under SAWEN/ZSL/HN project from IWT Challenge Fund; planned activities were briefed to the participants during visit at the SAWEN Secretariat held in Kathmandu, Nepal.

With brief closing session, the program was completed. On behalf of participants from the member countries, one official each provided their feedback during the closing session. Mr. Hyuk Lee and Ujjwal Meghi from INTERPOL recalled the initiation of program and shared the outputs of the training. Mr. Bhattarai extended vote of thanks to all the participants and summarized the program with brief highlights of the overall training program. The Training was organized with the support of USAID.