The LIFE SUPport project hosted a WildLIFE Crime Academy training workshop dedicated to police officers and nature professionals. It presented Spanish expertise in the detection and prosecution of environmental crimes through presentations and training on real-life cases.
40 people attended the workshop “Successful Detection, Suppression and Prosecution of Environmental Crimes” dedicated to police officers and organised by the Biom Association in cooperation with the Vulture Conservation Foundation and the Public Institution Priroda. Thanks to the collaboration with the Junta de Andalucía and SEPRONA Guardia Civil, the Spanish experts Alberto Galdón (Nature Protection Inspector) and Francisco Velasco (Officer of the Guardia Civil – SEPRONA) shared the Spanish expertise on dealing with wildlife crime.
Why Spain is a model
Spain stands out in Europe for its highly organized, professional approach to wildlife crime. It is the country with the highest success rate in detecting and prosecuting environmental crimes in Europe. A key driver of success is SEPRONA, the Guardia Civil unit dedicated to nature protection.
The Spanish expertise is at the base of the WildLIFE Crime Academy, our LIFE project entirely dedicated to building capacity to detect, investigate, and fight wildlife crime. Hundreds of experts from across Europe, including several Croatian officers, have been trained there.
What the Croatian‑Spanish workshop covered
Senior expert associate for nature conservation at the Biom Association, Marija Martinko Ivanov, opened the workshop, focusing on the role of apex predators and scavengers in the ecosystem. Every criminal act against them threatens the survival of endangered species and jeopardizes the stability of their ecosystems. The State Secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition, Željko Vuković, emphasized the need to establish a centralized, professionally trained, nature conservation service that could actively detect and suppress illegal activities in Croatia.
Participants learned how to recognise signs of poisoning and other illegal killing at the scene, how to secure and document evidence, and how to interact correctly with conservation‑management bodies and veterinarians. The session also focused on protocols for handling suspicious wildlife deaths. By simulating real‑life scenarios, trainers helped officers internalise the importance of meticulous documentation—critical for turning wildlife‑crime incidents into successful prosecutions.
A shield for Vultures
Poisoning remains one of the most serious threats to vultures and ecosystems worldwide. It indiscriminately wipes out scavengers that are essential for ecosystem health. The workshop highlighted a crucial lesson: vulture conservation requires a coordinated and proactive approach.
Workshops like this are essential for sharing knowledge, building effective systems, and directly supporting the conservation of griffon vultures, a species pushed to the brink of extinction by illegal activities such as poisoning in Croatia, particularly in the Kvarner region, where the last breeding population of Croatian Griffon Vultures remains, and across Europe.
LIFE SUPport
The LIFE SUPport aims to strengthen Croatia’s endangered Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) population. A 5-year project co-financed by the EU’s will create better conditions for the species to thrive and recolonise its historical breeding ground on the Croatian mainland. The project aims to improve breeding and survival conditions, minimise nest disturbance, reduce nestling mortality, tackle the threat of poison, mitigate collision and electrocution risks, and increase food availability.
The LIFE SUPport is a 2.1 million project from January 2023 until December 2027. A joint effort led by BIOM with Public Institution Priroda, Otok Krk Agricultural Cooperative, HEP – Operator distribucijskog sustava d.o.o., the energy distribution company, the Vulture Conservation Foundation and the Croatian Nature Protection Directorate (Ministry of Economy) as associate partners.
