by H.E. Ong Keng Yong
Secretary-General of ASEAN
at the
Opening Ceremony of the Second Meeting of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (2nd ASEAN-WEN)
Bogor, Indonesia
Monday, 21 May 2007

1. It is my pleasure to join all of you at this Opening Ceremony of the Second Meeting of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network.  I wish to express my appreciation to Indonesia for hosting this meeting.  Thank you, Bapak.

2. I wish to congratulate those of you who have endeavoured to establish the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network.  Since its launch on 1 December 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Network has been very active in implementing relevant programmes and activities to protect wildlife which includes wild fauna and wild flora, and in ensuring that the rich biodiversity of ASEAN is developed in a sustainable way for the benefit of our respective countries and the future generations.

3. ASEAN is proud of this collective enforcement initiative to combat the illicit trade in wildlife and its associated challenges to our natural environment and its ecosystems.  I am told that this Network is rather unique for the Asian region.  It is blazing the trail in the regional effort to look for innovative ways to protect the wildlife of ASEAN and Asia.

4. At the ASEAN Secretariat, we believe that enforcement of measures to protect wildlife should be strengthened as the borders of ASEAN Member Countries are porous due to the large number of informal and formal entry and exit points, the extensive coastal areas, the relative ease of transporting goods across boundaries and the indulging attitude of the local population.

5. Enforcement must be effective and to be so, we need all the concerned parties to join hands and pull together in one direction.  The forest rangers, the police, the customs administrations, the commercial sector and the grassroots bodies, for example, should coordinate better and share useful information purposefully.  We are all on the same side and we should not let those who do not think of the future of our societies to take advantage of the weakness in our national and regional systems.

6. The ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network is a valuable platform to get effective coordination and information sharing across all concerned national and regional agencies in the fight against the illicit harvesting and trafficking of  wildlife.  Let us all commit ourselves to make it work well.

7. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many partners of ASEAN in this common endeavour.  The support of the US Government, through the USAID, has been instrumental in advancing the work of the Network. 

8. Similarly, we appreciate the assistance rendered by the ASEAN-WEN Support Programme, comprising of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and the Wildlife Alliance, in implementing capacity building activities in ASEAN Member Countries such as the Wildlife Investigation Training Courses (held to strengthen the institutional capacity in Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia), the Country Assessments and the Judiciary Workshop (held recently in the Philippines).

9. ASEAN Member Countries has made progress in establishing their respective ASEAN-WEN National Task Forces (Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia have had their ASEAN-WEN NTFs, Indonesia and Cambodia are in the process of institutionalising the established coordination mechanism, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Viet Nam are strengthening the already established coordination mechanism across all stakeholders in wildlife enforcement efforts).

10. I also wish to recognize the strong commitment and support of Thailand which initiated the establishment of ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network and then followed through with the  implementation by setting up the Project Coordination Unit (PCU).

11. I extend our sincere thanks to our colleagues from invited countries and partner organisations who have continuously shared their insights and experiences through various forums in combating the threats to wildlife.

12. This Second Meeting will review the proposed activities to develop the ASEAN-WEN Action Plan and discuss the necessary steps concerning the operations of the ASEAN-WEN PCU in Thailand and the management of the well-developed ASEAN-WEN Website.

I wish you all fruitful deliberations.

Thank you.