MIKE Sub regional Steering Committee meeting.

Author:

Vikram Nanjappa

Date:

Mon, 12/17/2012

The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) is a Programme for elephant range states programme authorised by a resolution of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at the 10^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP10, Harare , 1997).

The MIKE program started in South Asia in the year 2003 with the following purpose – To provide information needed for elephant range States to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and to build institutional capacity within the range States for the long-term management of their elephant populations.

The Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ANCF) hosted the MIKE Sub regional Steering Committee meeting in Bangalore at the Royal Orchid Resorts and Convention Centre from December 9 – 11, 2012.

The main objectives of the MIKE are

• to measure levels and trends in the illegal hunting of elephants;
• to determine changes in these trends over time; and
• to determine the factors causing or associated with such changes, and to try and assess in particular to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.

Unfortunately the MIKE programme was discontinued in South Asian in 2009 and the focus of the meeting was to come out with a Draft Plan for reviving MIKE implementation and its sustainability in South Asia.

Four countries with wild Asian elephant populations attended the meeting. The countries that attended were Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and India. The Sri Lankan delegation was unable to attend due to some unforeseen circumstances.

The meeting was chaired by India represented by Mr. S.S. Garbyal the Additional Director General of Forest – Wildlife, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Govt. of India and Mr. A.M. Singh Inspector General of Forest & Director (Project Elephant) , Ministry of Environment and Forest , Govt. of India. Mr. Julian Blanc, the Acting Coordinator and Data Analyst CITES MIKE, represented MIKE.Dr. R. Sukumar and Dr. Ravi Chellam represented the ANCF which was the host agency for the meeting.

Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal were represented by the following:


Mr. A.N.M Abdul Wadud	Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Sherpur, Bangladesh
Mr. Abdul Mabud	Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Chittagong, Bangladesh

Mr. Sonam Wangdi	Section Head, Human Wildlife Conflict Management Section, Wildlife Conservation Division, Bhutan
Mr. Tashi Tobgyel	Chief Forest Officer, Forest Division, Gedu, Bhutan
Dr. Maheshwar Dhakal	Ecologist Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation Nepal

At the end of the meeting all member countries agreed, in principle, on the need to revive the MIKE programme in South Asia and agreed on the formulation of a draft plan for the same. The efforts will now be on the setting up, composition, structure and location of a Sub regional Unit to co-ordinate MIKE in the region.