Wildlife Crime Academy
Wildlife Crime Academy
Relevant Balkan stakeholders attend official anti-poisoning training courses to build capacities in tackling illegal wildlife poisoning
Competent authorities from the Balkans will participate in a series of ambitious and intense official anti-poison training courses within the Wildlife Crime Academy based in Spain, building capacities to effectively investigate, manage and tackle illegal wildlife poisoning incidents across seven Balkan countries.
Goals of the Wildlife Crime Academy
The Anti-Poisoning Training Courses Consist of Three Levels
1. Basic
It will cover everything relating to the practice of illegal wildlife poisoning to allow participants to gain general knowledge about the efforts each relevant governmental authority needs to invest. Participants will also acquire knowledge about the body posture of dead animals they encounter, enabling them to distinguish between signs indicative of poisoning but also of electrocution, collision and shooting, a necessary ability needed in the pre-investigation procedures as it can significantly facilitate the future course of action.
2. Advanced
The second series of courses will focus on each component of an investigation, including forensic pathology and toxicology in detail. The Wildlife Crime Academy will further organize specific advanced courses for law enforcement officials, including police, environmental inspection, forestry service and ranger service for investigation procedures of wildlife poisoning cases and staff from referent national veterinary institutes and toxicological laboratories for conduction of necropsies and toxicological analysis.
3. Supreme
The final and most intense level within the Wildlife Crime Academy’s anti-poison training courses will turn participants into experts in dealing with illegal poisoning and other wildlife crime. The Supreme course will concentrate on forensic investigation, showing participants from the relevant national enforcement agencies how to properly carry out the strategic planning of an investigation course of a poisoning incident from start to finish.
Within the BalkanDetox LIFE project’s scope, a total of 40-45 relevant staff from the Balkan countries will attend the Wildlife Crime Academy. During these courses, participants will become acquainted with cutting-edge equipment, methods, and techniques while also receiving the necessary resources and supplies to effectively detect, manage, and investigate wildlife poisoning incidents. Upon successfully completing the training courses, attendees will attain official certificates from the Spanish authorities and conduct the national anti-poisoning programmes as official trainers to transfer their newly gained knowledge to other colleagues from their respective countries.
