Training package on wildlife crime for law enforcement authorities 

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, combined with the lack of specialised knowledge at all levels of the enforcement chain, are key barriers to effective action to reduce these crimes. This has been pointed out by several official reports: for example, a 2019/2020 European Commission evaluation on the implementation of the Environmental Crime Directive -currently under review- identified the “lack of specialisation and training of law enforcement authorities, including prosecution and judiciary” as one of the main deficiencies that prevent that criminal environmental law from being effective.

LIFE SWiPE’s training package, directed at wildlife crime professionals, has been developed by specialists from Eurac Research and consists of 5 modules:

Module 1: The international and EU legislative framework

Module 2: The Ecological effects of Wildlife Crimes

Module 3: Wildlife Crimes Prosecutions

Module 4: Preventing Wildlife crimes, a “case studies” approach

Module 5: Enforcement analysis, Shortcomings and common challenges

If you are a training provider and are interested in using the materials but have additional questions, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. For more information, please leave us a message through the contact form.