Asia-wide network to be formed to protect endangered animals

"The decision was reached at a meeting held Wednesday at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) , " said Pei Jai-chyi, director of the university's Rescue Center for Endangered Wild Animals.

Representatives of 18 endangered animal rescue organizations and shelter centers in Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, South Korea, Britain and Hong Kong have been attending the meeting at the NPUST, which began Monday.

"As East Asian and Southeast Asian countries have been a hub for the illegal export of wild animals, participants in the meeting unanimously agreed to pool their resources to more effectively rescue endangered animal species and stamp out illegal trade in the region," Pei said.

In addition to naming the NPUST in the southern Taiwan county of Pingtung as the chief organizer, Pei said, the participants also decided that an inaugural conference will be held at Vietnam's Cuc Phuong National Park in northern Vietnam next November, and that all the organizations represented at the ongoing meeting will serve as founding members of the Wild Animal Rescue Network (WARN).

"It will be a belated move, as the proposal to establish an Asian regional wild animal rescue network was first broached 12 years ago," Pei explained.

The proposed WARN network will provide a platform for information and technology exchanges among member organizations for the rescue of endangered fauna species, Pei said. The network will also step up publicity in order to push governments in the region to allocate more resources to wildlife protection, he added.

Ultimately, Pei said, the WARN will collaborate with its counterparts in Latin America and Africa to rescue and protect endangered animal species.

The participants visited Kaohsiung County's Maolin township Thursday to see for themselves the damage to the region wrought by Typhoon Morakot in early August. They will travel to Nantou County in central Taiwan Friday to visit several facilities that were rebuilt after a devastating 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan Sept. 21, 1999.

A closing ceremony for the meeting will be held at the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute in Nantou's Jiji township.

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