“It is very important to protect wild and endangered animals, and with them the biodiversity of our country, our natural wealth. We’re talking about a crime against someone who doesn’t have a voice to protect themselves and their kind.”

With the words above Nadia Siderisspecies conservation specialist Greek Ornithological Societygives the essence and purpose of the seminars organized by Wildlife Crime Academy in the Balkans to solve crimes against wildlife involving 44 workers from nine countries.

Three staff members of the Organization for Environment and Climate Change (OFYPEKA), a veterinary toxicologist and a forest ranger participated from Greece. Five of them date back to April last year, when the third round of workshops in Marbella, Andalusia, on the investigation of crimes against wildlife ended, which also included leaders of the Ornithological Society, such as Ms. Sideris, as well as police Greeks (the first two cycles ).

Now the members of the first, small “Greek CSI” group on wildlife crime are preparing to pass on their knowledge to their colleagues in new related workshops organized in Greece.

Lessons from Europol officials

ABOUT Konstantinos ZorbasEcologist and Head of Development Programs and Projects of OFYPEKA, was one of the students of the Academy who hopes to start putting into practice in Greece what is being implemented in Spain.

“I was most impressed by the courses with Europol leaders. Analysis of the elements of the behavior of criminals, as well as the analysis of information that can prevent a crime. They took great interest in showing us a more cop, more adventurous way of working,” he says, emphasizing that a key issue in solving crimes is adoption of an action protocol with concrete stepswhich must be applied to perfection in the registration of a crime.

He notes that Greece suffers greatly in the matter of direct action due to the confusion between the many different services and ministries.

Spain managed to reduce crime by 80%

The figures given by Ms. Sideri are truly heartbreaking: “From 2000 to the present day, we have only three convictions for crimes against wildlife in our country and the fines are ridiculous, about 200 euros.. In Spain, by contrast, fines reach tens of thousands of euros. Therefore, seminars were held there. Because Spain, which once had a huge problem with this particular crime, managed to reduce it by 80% in twenty years.”

DNA test for 100 cattle

Describing the action that took place in the Andalusian village as part of the workshops, Thanasis Korakis, an ecologist working for the North Pindos National Park Authority, says enthusiastically: “We did training in the field with dead animals that had been preserved in formalin. Real crime scenes were established, and cases of these crimes were solved. We took fingerprints “surgically” at an extremely difficult crime scene, for example, in nature.. We conducted preliminary interrogations of the suspects. We talked about how we should think when we are in the field. To give an example: if you are patrolling the mountains and find a discarded disposable glove on the trail, your mind should immediately take this as a sign, as a possibility that someone is planning to sprinkle poison on a wider area.

Mr. Korakis, of course, emphasizes that all these benefits require political will to be implemented, since, according to him, the resources are available from European programs. “We were working on a case that actually happened in Andalusia. We were looking for which farm the animal that died from the poisoned bait came from. We went so far as to DNA test all the animals in 100 units in the area to find the first poisoned animal in the chain of deaths. which was found. That is how the offender was found and subsequently convicted.”

“One incident makes dozens”

For her part, Ms. Sideri is particularly supportive of the topic of poisoned baits, which was also a major topic of the seminars. He even gives an absolutely correct scenario of how the dominoes of animal death are created in nature. “You have a sheep poisoned with a poisonous substance to begin with. The wolf comes and eats. Dies. The dead wolf is seen by the vulture, which, like a scavenger, eats the wolf. The fox eats the vulture. Next come the three hawks, and so on. One case gives dozens.

Mr. Korakis encountered this a few days ago when, while on patrol with colleagues, he discovered a series of “industrial” traps at an altitude of 1800 meters. “We call them industrial because the poison disguised in raw meat is cyanide,” he says, and continues: “A few meters down we noticed three decaying foxes that had actually been eaten by other animals. It was an “intentional” crime. Poisoned baits very often target predatory animals: wolves, stray dogs roaming the Greek mountains, as well as jackals. However, vultures of the white-tailed eagle species, which are threatened with extinction, often become their victims.

The need for specialized staff

Mr. Korakis, in turn, emphasizes that the application of CSI methods for these crimes requires a large number of specialized personnel. They start from very simple things, such as which staff member is responsible for notifying the medical examiner and toxicologist immediately, to more complex ones, such as how you “secure” the crime scene so that evidence is not tampered with in the first critical two hours, but also the particular way in which the package is closed. with a dead animal so that toxicological tests can be performed properly.

Greece, he says, is still far from it: “There is only one toxicological laboratory in the whole country., in Athens, who also does many other things. When you wait two years for the results of a study, how are you going to prosecute criminals effectively? When the forestry department of Ioannina has four vehicles to control a vast and complex area, how are you going to be fast?” Mr. Korakis asks.

Progress Steps

However, despite the chronic shortcomings, K’s interlocutors note that recent steps have been taken in the right direction. Ms. Sideri cites as an example the KYA on bait poisoning, issued last August, which stipulates that forestry departments and forestry departments in certain areas with frequent cases of bait poisoning should develop local action plans. In this regard, OFYPEKA has created seven special units to work with poisoned baits.

Mixed patrols are already being carried out with the participation of employees of the organization, in combination with forestry workers and with the valuable help of specially trained dogs. “The security corps is gradually being introduced. At the moment, OFYPEKA has just over 100 security guards throughout Greece, and recent legislation gives us the opportunity to hire another 50,” notes Mr. Zorbas.

*The Wildlife Crime Academy workshops were organized as part of the LIFE program “Strengthening National Capacities to Combat Wildlife Poisoning and Raising Awareness of the Problem in the Balkans” (LIFE19 GIE/NL/001016-LIFE BalkanDetox).