CHINESE DELEGATION SEEKS BEST CONSERVATION PRACTICES FROM KWS

Date Published:

Friday, June 21, 2019 - 15:45

Kenya Wildlife Service Director General Brigadier (Rtd) John Waweru hosted a delegation of nine Chinese officials from the Asian country’s Department of Natural Protected Area Management on, June 20, 2019.

The delegation, led by Deputy Director General ,Ms. Meng Duangqin, sought to learn the best wildlife management and conservation practices, employed by KWS in conjunction with both local and international NGOs.

The delegation is seeking to collaborate with the Kenyan government through structured engagements, by coming up with MOUs that will enable favorable working environment for both parties, in a bid to curb illegal trade markets for wildlife products.

China has partnered with international organizations in the conservation of wildlife, forests, wetlands and environment for over 40 years now. Kenya through KWS has been a key partner.

The delegation’s request comes at a time when China has joined Kenya and other countries across the world to advocate for total ban of ivory trade. “We are glad that Kenya and China are in the forefront of prohibited illegal ivory trade, we would like to learn best practices that KWS has put in place to deter this menace,” said Ms. Duangqin.

In response, KWS Director General Brig. (Rtd) John Waweru, attributed the achieved success in conservation to partnership between the national government, NGOs, local and international bodies like East African police, Interpol, International Fund for Animal Welfare, CITES among many others.

“This local and international partnership with organizations has helped us control illegitimate ivory trade by setting up stringent rules and regulations on wildlife management and conservation,” replied Brig.(Rtd) Waweru.

Speaking at the occasion, KWS Director for Biodiversity Dr. Patrick Omondi requested the Chinese government to support Kenya on its proposals to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) taking place in August this year, in Geneva.

“We are requesting you-Chinese government-to back our 5 species proposals in the coming CITES conference to be held in Geneva, Switzerland on the closure of ivory market,” said Dr. Omondi.

Kenya is presenting giraffe, elephant, pancake tortoise, sea cucumber and shark species proposals to various appendices in this year’s CITES conference to mitigate rampant illegal ivory trade across all nations under CITES membership.

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