Wildlife experts representing 13 countries gathered today in the capital for a symposium titled ‘Towards Zero Poaching in Asia’ jointly organised by Government of Nepal, World Wiildlife Fund, Global Tiger Forum, South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network and National Trust for Nature Conservation.
Inaugurating the symposium, Sharad Chandra Paudel, Secretary of Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation said it was the first time ever symposium on zero poaching in the context of Nepal.
“Nepal has achieved outstanding results in setting a role model for zero poaching for Asia as well as other parts of the world for four years,” said Paudel, adding that the fight against poaching in the initial stage since the political insurgency of 2000 was challenging and sounded almost impossible.
The tigers, rhinos and elephants are the main wildlife species in Nepal that are under threat due to poaching and wildlife crime.
He called on stakeholders, experts and local communities to make concerted efforts to end wildlife crime and poaching through anti-poaching campaigns in every district to end the threat to the endangered species of Nepal.
Minister Mahesh Acharya of MoFSC said poaching, wildlife crime and illegal trade in animal body parts were the largest crimes in Nepal. He thanked Nepal Police, Nepali Army, Central Investigation Bureau, local anti-poaching community and international stakeholders for helping Nepal achieve the milestone in zero poaching.
“Almost 23 per cent land in Nepal has been protected as conservation area to sustain endangered flora and fauna in their natural habitat,” he said highlighting the fact that Nepal is being used as transit point by smugglers of wildlife body parts that are trafficked to China and Vietnam.
Tika Ram Adhikari, director general at Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation cited poverty, greed, unemployment, corruption, lack of awareness, political instability and weak law enforcement as the main factors behind the rise in poaching and wildlife crime.
