Dr Maheshwor Dhakal receiving the award from the Secretary General of CITES Mr. John Scanlon on the occasion of 65th CITES Standing Committee Meeting in Switzerland, Geneva
12 July, Kathmandu: Nepal has been awarded from CITES Secretary-General’s Certificates of Commendation for its exemplary wildlife law enforcement efforts.
The Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Mr John E. Scanlon, provided the award at an International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) event taken place as part of the 65th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 7-11 July.
The CITES Secretary-General’s Certificate of Commendation was awarded to Nepal in recognition of its exemplary efforts to combat wildlife crime.
In 2011 no rhinoceroses, tigers, or elephants were illegally killed in Nepal, and in 2012 the country lost just a rhinoceros to poaching.
Dr Maheshwor Dhakal, under-secretary of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, received the Certificate of Commendation on behalf of all national agencies involved in wildlife law enforcement, acknowledged the many innovative measures implemented by Nepal to combat wildlife crime, including strong inter-agency collaboration, combined patrols by rangers and the Nepali Army in protected areas supported by community-based anti-poaching units outside of parks, and intelligence-led enforcement actions leading to the arrest of key players at the top of the criminal chain.
Likewise, China, Kenya and the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) were awarded Certificates of Commendation for collaborative efforts to take down an international criminal syndicate smuggling ivory from Kenya to China. The joint action occurred during Operation COBRA II – an international wildlife law enforcement operation involving 28 countries that took place in January 2014 – and resulted in the extradition of a Chinese national from Kenya to China and the arrest of more than 20 smugglers and domestic ivory traders in China implicated in the activities of the syndicate.
