The report analyzes the territorial scope of poisonings, the substances used and the evolution of their use over time, the origins and causes of the illegal use of poison baits and especially the impact it has on wildlife
Today, MEPs of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) adopted, by a large majority, a strong position on the revision of the EU Environmental Crime Directive. This position goes beyond the original proposal of the European Commission, and sends a clear message to Member States that the European Parliament is determined to give teeth […]
In October 2022, Bulgarian prosecutors took part in a groundbreaking two-day training event that marked the beginning of a series of sessions aimed at equipping these legal professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to tackle wildlife crime. The training was organised by WWF Bulgaria and the Association of Prosecutors in Bulgaria (APB), as part […]
Increasing the awareness, knowledge, and capacity of wildlife crime professionals is one of the objectives of the LIFE SWiPE project. As part of this effort, a comprehensive training package on wildlife crime has been developed and it’s now publicly available on the project’s website. Lack of awareness of the scale and impact of wildlife crime, […]
In a successful case against wildlife crime, prosecutors in Hungary brought charges against four hunters who killed a strictly protected cinereous vulture and four common buzzards. The perpetrators were caught thanks to the GPS tracker carried by the vulture, and also to the decisive help of poison and carcass detection canine unit of Birdlife Hungary. […]
Illegal poison-baits are the most widely used method for killing predators on a global scale, a massive method of eliminating animals considered harmful to livestock or game species. It is a serious threat to biodiversity in many European countries, as shown by data from Spain where thousands of wild animals -including threatened species- are still […]
With 70 registered participants from all over Europe, on December 13th the LIFE SWiPE project organised an internal knowledge-sharing workshop among its members and colleagues outside the project’s team, to discuss the future of wildlife crime prosecution in the short and mid-term. Different challenges for the fight against wildlife crime were discussed, including the disparities […]
The SWiPE project voices its concerns over the Council’s position on the revision of the Environmental Crime Directive, joining environmental NGOs, including Birdlife, Born Free, EEB, IFAW, Eurogroup for Animals, Humane Society International, and WWF. The Justice Ministers of the EU’s Member States adopted recently their position on the revision of the Directive on the […]
Text by Lucio Biancatelli – WWF Italy / Featured image by Gruppo Guardie Volontarie WWF Italy “A report has just arrived from WWF Italy’s Antipoaching Guards: close to the city of Brescia, next to a house in an area of northern Italy, branches have been smeared with birdlime, a powerful glue where small birds, such […]
On 17-21 October 2022, a workshop on wildlife crime was held in Goniądz, Poland, by WWF Poland as part of the LIFE SWiPE project. The workshop brought together representatives from the tax and customs service, the police and the prosecutor’s office. Participants shared knowledge on, among other topics, identifying species listed in the Convention on […]