NEWS & CALENDAR OF EVENTS
News & Calendar of Events:
11th meeting of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group held in India
20th March: The 11th meeting of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) was organised from 14th to 17th March 2023 in India. The AsESG meeting was held at New Delhi from 14th to 15th March followed by 16th and 17th March at Corbett National Park in Corbett, Uttarakhand, India. The meeting was hosted in collaboration MoEF&CC and Uttarakhand Forest Department. The last two meetings were held in Bankgkok, Thailand and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. It was decided to host the forthcoming meeting in India which harbours the largest population of Asian elephants. There were partner roundtable meetings, stakeholder consultations, range countries participations, deliberation on critical issues pertaining to elephant conservation, field visits besides providing for logistics and accommodation of AsESG members and ex-officio members during the 11th meeting of the AsESG.
Overall there was participation from 130 members who participated and helped in organising the meeting. The participation included 67 AsESG members, representatives from 11 Asian elephant range countries, 11 conservation partners, special invitees and organisers from MoEF&CC, Uttarakhand FD and Wildlife Trust of India. The Government of India and the Uttarakhand Forest Department collaborated with IUCN SSC AsESG and extended all support in organising the meeting in Delhi and Corbett National Park. In this meeting, there were 57 plenary presentations in total with wide participation from 51 AsESG members actively involved in presenting, chairing and co-chairing the sessions.
The discussions focused on country presentation from all 13 range countries both by ex-officio and AsESG members on status of wild/captive elephant population of the country, main conservation issues and threats and the interventions being made by the range countries to protect elephants. There were presentations from 12 Working Groups on the status of the reports. The three completed WG reports have been finalised and uploaded on the AsESG website. The comments and feedbacks from the AsESG members have been collated for the remaining 9 Working Groups and the drafting of these Reports are now ongoing.
Overall there was participation from 130 members who participated and helped in organising the meeting. The participation included 67 AsESG members, representatives from 11 Asian elephant range countries, 11 conservation partners, special invitees and organisers from MoEF&CC, Uttarakhand FD and Wildlife Trust of India. The Government of India and the Uttarakhand Forest Department collaborated with IUCN SSC AsESG and extended all support in organising the meeting in Delhi and Corbett National Park. In this meeting, there were 57 plenary presentations in total with wide participation from 51 AsESG members actively involved in presenting, chairing and co-chairing the sessions.
The discussions focused on country presentation from all 13 range countries both by ex-officio and AsESG members on status of wild/captive elephant population of the country, main conservation issues and threats and the interventions being made by the range countries to protect elephants. There were presentations from 12 Working Groups on the status of the reports. The three completed WG reports have been finalised and uploaded on the AsESG website. The comments and feedbacks from the AsESG members have been collated for the remaining 9 Working Groups and the drafting of these Reports are now ongoing.
