Ahead of World One Health Day (3 November), the UNODC Environment Team and its implementing partners UNEP and FAO – both members of the One Health Quadripartite - conducted a joint inception mission to the ASEAN Secretariat on 17-18 October 2023, as part of the SAFE project.
The Safety across Asia For the global Environment (SAFE) project focuses on the connection between wildlife trafficking and zoonotic disease transmission with the aim to prevent future pandemics. In line with the One Health approach, focused at finding the balance between the health of people, animals and ecosystems, SAFE works to raise awareness and accelerate action towards protecting wildlife and preventing wildlife crimes as a critical component to protecting human health.
Bringing together relevant Divisions of the ASEAN Secretariat working on wildlife crime, biosafety and biosecurity issues, the inception mission led to fruitful dialogues with the Environment Division, Food, Agriculture and Forestry Division, Health Division, Security Cooperation Division 1 and also engaged the EU Delegation to ASEAN. Aligning the findings from the SAFE project to the ASEAN post-2025 Agenda is key to ensure a unified response to wildlife crime and zoonotic diseases transmission risks at intra- and inter-regional levels.
In 2024, UNEP, FAO and UNODC will bring together experts from across the region and the EU to learn from the observations collected by the SAFE project field surveys and discuss common approaches to wildlife trade, wild meat consumption and management of facilities. Later the same year, the partners will convene an ASEAN-EU forum to draw a roadmap to foster cooperation between the two regions at scientific and policy level on the prevention of zoonotic diseases related to wildlife crime.
The SAFE project is implemented by the UNODC Global Programme on Crimes that Affect the Environment, in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and benefits from the financial support of the European Union.
Click here to learn more about UNODC's Regional Programme for Southeast Asia.
Click here to learn more about UNODC’s Global Programme on Crimes that Affect the Environment.
Click here to learn more about the SAFE project.
For further information on our work, you may contact our Asia Pacific Coordinator, Ms. Jenna Dawson-Faber at unodc-wlfc[@]un.org
