Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (wems)

Information about Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (wems)

Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS) is a GIS based model developed to monitor wildlife law enforcement in the Asian region. It was started as a joint initiative by the United Nations University and the Asian Conservation Alliance. It is also supported financially by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Background

Transnational organized wildlife crime poses a major challenge to conservation and protection of wild flora and fauna. United Nations, during its multilateral conventions, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), often come up with challenges on how to deal with illegal wildlife trade as there is no official record of the amount of illegal trade that is actually taking place. UN General Assembly resolution (document A/CONF.203/PM.1) states that, combating the trade in endangered species requires a comprehensive approach that builds on areas of success, remedies deficiencies and weakness in laws and enforcement efforts and goes beyond law enforcement to include educational campaigns and awareness-raising.

Understanding the seriousness of the issue, in October 2004, CITES adopted a resolution (Resolution Conf. 11.3 (Rev.CoP13) ‘Enforcement matters’) at the 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP13) and recommended to the Parties to evaluate and utilize, for enforcement purposes, information from non-governmental sources while maintaining standards of confidentiality.

Objectives

The project aims to:

Show a definite pattern of international illegal wildlife trade in the Asian region
Evaluate international cooperation and law enforcement
Supply information on wildlife enforcements to authorities
Gather and organise information from non-governmental sources
Utilize the GIS based software to disseminate information gathered

Contact

Mr. Remi Chandran, Research Associate, WEMS Project.

geographic information system (GIS) (also known as geographical information system, particularly in the UK, and geomatics in Canada) is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced to the
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Wildlife refers to all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Domesticated organisms are those that have adapted to survival with the help of (or under the control of) humans, after many generations.
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Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.
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United Nations University (UNU) is a university established on December 6, 1973 by adoption of resolution 3081 by the United Nations General Assembly, upon the suggestion of U Thant, UN Secretary-General at the time.
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

Charity
Founded 1969, New Brunswick, Canada
Headquarters Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts

Key people Frederick O’Regan
Thomas C.
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Headquarters
(and largest city)
Official languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
Membership 192 member states
Leaders
- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Establishment
-
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CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments, drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
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The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Rio Treaty, is an international treaty that was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
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United Nations General Assembly

A meeting of the General Assembly in New York
Org type: Principal Organ
Acronyms: GA, UNGA
Head: President of the UN General Assembly

As of 18 September 2007

Srgjan Kerim

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endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in number, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.
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Remi Chandran is an environmental policy researcher currently associated with the United Nations University and works on issues relating to United Nations Conventions and civil society participation.
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Conservation biology, or conservation ecology, is the science of analyzing and protecting Earth's biological diversity. Conservation biology draws from the biological, physical and social sciences, economics, and the practice of natural-resource management.
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Wildlife management is the process of keeping certain wildlife populations at desirable levels determined by wildlife managers. Wildlife management is interdisciplinary, integrating science, mathematics, imagination, and logic.
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There are numerous international environmental agreements made to protect the environment in different ways. Many of these are legally binding.

International environmental agreements include:

Alpine Convention together with its nine protocols

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