The ASEAN Handbook on Legal Cooperation to Combat Illegal Wildlife Trade 2021 is one of the key deliverables for ASEAN Cooperation in Forestry 2021 and SOM-AMAF’s cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry in 2021. The handbook is also an update of the ASEAN Handbook on Legal Cooperation to Combat Illegal Wildlife 2016 which aims to provide law and policy makers criminal justice officials, and law enforcement officials from the ASEAN region with a strategic approach to deploying an arsenal of hard and soft laws and other associated tools for the prosecution of wildlife crimes. In addition to providing updates and enhancements reflecting legislative and policy changes since 2016, the updated Handbook will incorporate relevant information and policy guidelines on zoonotic diseases and COVID-19, reflecting a One Health Approach, which is the convergence of environmental, animal, and human health, in the context of the illegal wildlife trade.

Recalling the 8th edition of the Conservation Status Report (document AEWA/MOP 8.19) which shows that 43% of the AEWA populations are in long-term decline including many globally threatened species, and that the causes of such declines, which occur in every flyway, are frequently due to enhanced mortality,

Recalling that AEWA’s Action Plan highlights several causes of actual or potential mortality arising from legal taking, illegal killing, unfavourable or endangering conditions, collisions with and the effects of built infrastructure, disturbance, bycatch, pollution, non-native species, aquaculture, and lead poisoning from fishing weights and gunshot, the regulation of which is desirable to help achieve the objectives of the Agreement,

Recalling also Target 1.6 of AEWA’s Strategic Plan 2019-2027 which seeks that “AEWA priorities relating to four causes of unnecessary additional mortality and other key threats to migratory waterbirds and their habitats1 are integrated in key multilateral processes “, with the delivery of this target envisaging the following actions:

a) Identify those multilateral processes that can contribute most to progressing AEWA priorities (led by Technical Committee in consultation with Secretariat and Partners);

b) Identify strategic opportunities for positively influencing these processes (meetings of technical bodies, working groups etc.) and ensure, as far as possible, that AEWA’s views are represented;

c) Communicate/advocate AEWA priorities in a clear and timely manner;

d) Ensure that AEWA Parties take coherent, mutually reinforcing aligned positions under different conventions and related processes

WWF’s global site-based conservation programs cover vast areas of countries and continents and, via its landscape approach, invariably has large programs that transcend national boundaries be it for species conservation, forest and habitat protection, or to maintain environmental f lows and sustainable use. Past global studies have looked at guidelines and criteria for successful transboundary conservation programs, but a review of practical lessons from the field is lacking. This report reflects on the strengths and challenges of transboundary conservation programs, illustrated by a compilation of lessons from over two decades of work on the ground, and builds on previous knowledge, fills some knowledge gaps, and draws on firsthand practitioners’ experiences from 16 of WWF’s transboundary landscapes across Europe, Africa, Central America and Asia.

Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) are an important conservation initiative of the IWC.  They provide a framework for countries within the range of vulnerable cetacean populations (known as range states) to work together, and in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders, to protect and rebuild those populations.