Held in Katmandu, Nepal, from 31 January – 1 February 2008, the first regional workshop on the South Asia Wildlife Trade Initiative gathered representatives from all eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The meeting agreed that the South Asia Wildlife Trade Initiative and its South Asia Regional Strategic Plan on Wildlife Trade will focus on a number of key areas of work, including: co-operation and co-ordination; effective legislation, policies and law enforcement; sharing knowledge and effective dissemination of information; sustainability of legal trade and livelihoods security; intelligence networks and early warning systems; and capacity building. The decisions of the workshop will be presented for endorsement at Ministerial level at the 11th meeting of the Governing Council of the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), an inter-government organization established in 1982 for promoting regional co-operation in South Asia in the field of environment.
Link to further information
TRAFFIC press release, 7 February 2008