| Capacity-building | 1) Specialised environment officer
Investigation work carried out by various state security forces and corps is crucial in cases of fauna poisoning, so a huge effort has been made to train up environment officers in the investigation of crimes of this type
as an essential step towards cutting down impunity. In 2011 and 2018 under Life+ VENENO project 22 specialisation courses were organized and held on investigation of poisoning cases, involving a total of 550 environment officers from
different comunidades autónomas.
The courses, in chronological order, were given in the comunidades autónomas of Aragon, Cantabria, Murcia, Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia and La Rioja. Training courses were also arranged for police
officers of the Ertzaintza and guarderío (forestry wardens) of the Basque Country. The results were highly satisfactory, with a very high rate of active participation by officers. The best-valued aspects by participants were the level and usefulness of the contents.
Environment officers were issued with material for investigating the illegal use of poison, such as thermal (night vision) viewers, camera traps, shockproof and GPS digital cameras, plus sample-taking and -analysing material.
2) UNIVE, the specialist unit of Castile-La Mancha
Under Life+ VENENO project, it was created the UNIVE (Unidad de Investigación de Venenos) in Castilla-La Mancha, specialist unit in investigation of poisoning cases. UNIVE, with a regional remit, is made up by two patrols, one based in Ciudad Real and the other in
Toledo. Each patrol comprises three officers, and their work has raised the amount of legal action brought, both as criminal and as administrative proceedings. This necessarily implies a reduction in the impunity of the crime, thereby meeting the main goal of this unit’s creation. UNIVE has also carried out stakeholder-cooperation and awareness-raising work, widening its responsibilities to supervision of the pesticide trade. | On-going |
| Capacity-building | From from 1 January 2010 to 31 March 2014 SEO/BirdLife coordinate and implemented The Life + “Action in the fight against illegal poison use in the natural environment in Spain” – Life+ VENENO - (LIFE08 NAT/E/000062) had as the main aim to achieve a significant reduction in illegal poison use in various autonomous communities, and especially in their SPA network, where this problem is one of the main causes of non-natural mortality in some of the most endangered species in Europe, such as the Spanish Imperial Eagle, the Monk Vulture, the Red Kite and the Egyptian Vulture (including the Canary Islands subspecies), all of which are included in Annex I of the Birds Directive and in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive. The project was awared as one of the Best of the Best Natura Life+ Project 2015.
The main goals of the project were:
- Ensure that the powers-that-be have sufficient legal tools for preventing and prosecuting cases of poisoning.
- Ensure that example-setting fines are imposed in poisoning cases to deter any future perpetrators.
- Enhance surveillance and detection of poisoning cases.
- Show that there are other solutions to poisoningprovoking problems and bring these alternativesto wider notice.
- Bring the problem to much wider notice in the public at large and raise awareness, especially among all stakeholder sectors
| Completed |
| Education/Communication/Raising awareness | 1) Information and Awareness Raising
One of the stiffest challenges in this was to bring the problem to the widest possible notice among the public at large and also raise stakeholder awareness. No effort has been spared to communicate the consequences of the illegal use of poison. Direct work was also
carried out with farmers, hunters and the legal profession.
The website www.venenono.org, set up in 2012, has become a benchmark poison information source. SEO/BirdLife’s ownwebsite www.seo.org, with over 500,000 hits a year, is also a crucial project publicising outlet.
Over 1000 news items have also been published in the media to keep the poison problem in the limelight.
Contact with some stakeholders, like farmers and various hunting federations, was kept up to raise their awareness about the effects of poison and rejecting the use of poisoned bait as predator control.
2) Refining knowledge
One of the most important inputs of the work done againts poisoning has been to boost and refine knowledge about illegal use of poison in Spain. Information was therefore requested from the comunidades autónomas; all fauna poisoning episodes from 2005 to 2013 were recorded. The report "El Veneno es España (1993-2013)" was published jointly with WWF Spain, making a completed review fo the national situation. Currently SEO/BirdLife is working in a new report to cover the period from 2013 to 2018.
To shed some light on the main loopholes used by poisoners, a study was conducted of wildlife poisoning substances (Estudio sobre sustancias que provocan el envenenamiento de la fauna Silvestre). Study results show that over 70 substances have been used to prepare poisoned bait, mostly phytosanitary products.
Furthermore, A handbook targeted at the legal profession has been brought out,called “Ilegal Use of Poisoned Bait. Investigation and Legal Analysis” (Uso ilegal de cebos envenenados. Investigación y análisis
jurídico). | Completed |
| Policy influencing/advocacy | Adoption of plans and protocols
Specific plans and protocols for the fight against illegal use of poison, wherever they have been approved and adopted, have always proved to be a big step towards solving this problem.
The aim here was to spread to other comunidades autónomas the progress made in those regions that were already running strategic anti-poison plans or strategies before the project was launched, namely Andalusia, Aragon and Castile-La Mancha.
These legislative instruments comprise a series of minimum measures on the prevention, deterrence and prosecution of this crime; another aim is to shape and nurture a general public commitment against this threat to biodiversity. Life+ VENENO has drawn up a basic draft of the Action Plan for Eradication of the Illegal Use of Poison in the Countryside (Plan de Acción para la erradicación del uso ilegal de veneno en el Medio Natural) and four protocols:
• Procedural protocol for dealing with cases of poisoning in wildlife rescue centres (centros de recuperación) and toxicology laboratories.
• Procedural protocol for law enforcement officials in charge of collecting presumably poisoned fauna or bait and the preliminary investigation.
• General legal protocol for administrative action and liaison with criminal proceedings deriving from the use of poisoned bait in the countryside.
• Procedural protocol for law enforcement officials in charge of surveillance and preventive action against use of poison in the countryside.
In Spain it has been achieved that 11 of the 17 Autonomous Communities approve action plans against wildlife poisoning and SEO/BirdLife is still working so that all the regions approve it.
SEO/BirdLife, jointly with BirdLife Europe is currently working to extend the approval of action plans and protocols in other countries and at EU level, according to the EU Roadmap towards eliminating illegal killing, trapping and trade of birds | On-going |
| Policy influencing/advocacy | In 2015 SEO/BirdLife and the RSPB created the European Network against Environmental Crime (ENEC) aim of strengthening the work of the partners of BirdLife Europe in the fight against environmental crime, facilitating the exchange of information and the experience of legal and other practitioners in working to prevent or prosecute this type of crime. Together with ENEC members SEO/BirdLife promoted and coordinated the elaboration of A proposal for a EU Action Plan to prevent illegal poisoning of wildlife that was incorporated into the EU Roadmap towards eliminating illegal killing, trapping and trade of birds. The ENEC and this proposal is mentioned in the resolution WCC-2016-Res-014. In addition to this work, SEO/BirdLife coordinated and conducted an unprecedented Study on the implementation of Directive 2008/99/EC on the Protection of the Environment Through Criminal Law. This report evaluates the regulation and means used in the EU in the fight against poisoning, as well as an assessment of this type of crimes.
On the other hand, SEO/BirdLife is member of the CMS Preventing Poisoning Working Group (PPWG) since its first meeting in Tunis in 2013. The organization has participated in the drafting of the Guidelines to Prevent the Risk of Poisoning to Migratory Birds (UNEP/CMS/COP11/Doc.23.1.2), especially in the section related to the use of poisoned baits. SEO/BirdLife was the organization in charge of holding in Toledo the second meeting of the Working Group in February 2017, obtaining funds for this aim . In this meeting it was agreed that SEO/BirdLife would be responsible of the coordination of the Group and the search for financing for its operation, a task in which we are currently involved.
| On-going |
| Policy influencing/advocacy | Presence in courts has helped to bring home the serious of this biodiversity threat to judicial bodies and the public at large while also supporting the investigation work carried out by environment officers, the Servicio
de protección de la naturaleza de la Guardia Civil (Seprona) and regional police forces. SEO/BirdLife have been party to arround 30 criminal proceedings. These involved such serious cases as the poisoning of six Spanish Imperial Eagles in Ciudad Real or the 140+ raptors killed by poisoned bait in Tudela and Cintruénigo (Navarre). Some of these proceedings are still underway but 14 have concluded with convictions. Some of these convictions have involved prison sentences of up to one year and four months, civil liability payments of over 360,000 euros or disqualification from hunting activities for over four years. The deterrent effect of these convictions is crucial in the fight against poison, poisoner impunity having been one of the main reasons why this crime has not yet been wiped out.
NGOs were also encouraged to take part as interested parties in administrative proceedings dealing with poison use. | On-going |
