Govt to launch National Wildlife Action Plan for next 15 yrs : Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi, Sept 29: Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the government will make new national wildlife action plan for next 15 years, for conservation and management of wildlife and swachh wildlife habitat. Addressing mediapersons here, Dr Vardhan said, "On October 2, 2017 we will be launching the National Wildlife Action Plan for the period from 2017 to 2031." Dr Vardhan said, "In the action action plan we will make strategies to handle and diagnose wildlife diseases, climate change, global warming." The Minister also announced the Global Wildlife Programme Conferences (GWP), focuses on improving wildlife management, providing livelihood opportunities through tourism, and improving governance on wildlife conservation. About the GWP, he said, "It would be a good opportunity for India to showcase its conservation efforts through the participation of millions of people through Joint Forest Management, Vana Samrakshan Samatis, Eco-Development Committees in and around forests and other protected areas." The GWP 2017 is organised jointly by the government in partnership with World Bank and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) this year from October 2, 2017 coinciding with ‘Wildlife Week’. The Minister said the GWP focuses on illegal wildlife trade across 19 countries of Asia, Africa and to acts as a platform for knowledge exchange and coordination on the ground actions to combat illegal poaching of wildlife. Ministerial and government officials representation from 18 countries -- Afghanistan, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Philippines, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe-- will participate in the meeting. Explaining about India's role in the meeting he said, "India has been a leader in the region in taking proactive steps towards control of illegal trade in wildlife and also in management of wildlife through involvement of local communities. Considering this, the theme for the Indian conference has been aptly named “Peoples participation in wildlife conservation”. "India being rich in its wildlife also faces challenges in terms illegal trade in wildlife resources and coordination among the major wildlife rich countries would enable India to strengthen its enforcement mechanism for controlling such illicit trade, the meeting would also bring strengthened cooperation between India and the 18 GWP countries in better management of wildlife habitats and minimizing human wildlife conflict situations," he said. UNI