Nepal a best performer, reports WWF
Despite facing a dearth of resources, Nepal is ranked among the best performance in the club of 23 South African and Asian nations in combating illegal trade of the key wildlife species and their parts. The Wildlife Crime Scorecard, released by the Swiss-based WWF for the first time on Monday, states that Nepal and India are the only countries to have scored green signals for all the three major species-tigers, rhinos and elephants. Green signal, followed by yellow and red, is the highest level of compliance and enforcement done by any country for their effort in controlling the trade of endangered animals species. The scorecard assessed the compliance of the top range, transit and destination countries on illegal wildlife trade and enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) commitments for tigers, rhinos and elephants. The countries were given green, yellow and red signals depending upon their efforts in curbing the trade in these wildlife species. Establishment of specialised wildlife crime agencies and units along with effective coordination mechanisms among the concerned government police, customs authorities, commerce and the judiciary are some positive works that have encouraged the country to control illegal trade of important wildlife species, said a report prepared by the Global Tiger Initiative. Meanwhile, 2011 is hailed as one of the best periods of rhino conservation after Nepal successfully celebrated it as the zero poaching year. “Effective coordination among conservation partners, including local communities and government authorities, contributed to the conservation of our precious wildlife,” said Krishna Acharya, director general at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife local communities in anti-poaching activities is contributing significantly to conservation efforts, he said.The WWF report further states that the global black market of endangered animal species is growing significantly in a majority of the countries in the lack of clear jurisdictional authority and effective coordination mechanisms. Vietnam, Laos and Mozambique are listed as the trade of tigers, rhinos and elephants.
Nepal is home to around 532 rhinos and 155 tigers. The total estimated population of the big cat in all the 13 tiger range countries stands at 3200.
