China on Friday promised closer cooperation with South-East Asian nations in the fight against trafficking in wild animals, of which it is a major consumer, DPA reported. "We want to be open and honest about what's going on here," Wan Ziming, head of enforcement for China's State Forestry Administration, said after talks with officials from five Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) members and wildlife protection groups. "Everyone is blaming China for consuming South-East Asia's wildlife and wants China to solve the problem," Wan said in a joint press release after the five-day meeting in China's southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. "We need to work together with other countries, with ASEAN-WEN, to stop the illegal trade," he said, referring to the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network. Steven Galster, director of operations for the Thailand-based Wildlife Alliance, welcomed the talks. "China's openness gives us hope that more meaningful cross-border enforcement cooperation in Asia may be on the horizon," Galster said in the joint statement. Eight police, customs and environmental officials from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines joined the talks, which were aimed at agreeing on strategies to reduce the illegal cross-border wildlife trade. The talks were the first formal dialogue on wildlife trafficking with ASEAN in China. The ASEAN officials visited a high-security warehouse for seized wildlife products, including several tons of ivory and snake skins, the statement said.
