On Wednesday 18 November membership was officially opened for the EMPOWER Network. After almost 6 months of preparation the Network is now ready to expand beyond the 9 Founding Members. It is expected that in the end over 70 members from across Europe will have joined the network, which aims to improve the professionalism and capacity of NGOs in their responses to marine wildlife emergencies and cooperation with their national authorities. Membership of EMPOWER is free of charge and only requires the signing of a Code of Conduct and the submission of information on the applicant. Read more…
As a newcomer to the European scheme of Operational Grants to NGOs, Sea Alarm was recently audited in late October by a UK based team which was sent by the European Commission to check Sea Alarm’s financial and administrative structure. This is a standard procedure which provides essential information both to the Commission and the beneficiary of the grant if the internal procedure and structures comply with the standards set by the Commission. After three days of studying Sea Alarm’s administration and interviewing the staff, the auditors came to a positive end conclusion. Read more…
In the Netherlands an important new step has been taken to increase the national preparedness to oiled wildlife incident. The Dutch authority for oil spill preparedness and response, Rijkswaterstaat, has provided a budget to the national oiled bird rehabilitation network SON to develop a manual that can be used to train groups of volunteers that can be called on in case of a larger oiled wildlife incident. Read more…
Immediately after the 10th Effects of Oil on Wildlife conference, the Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) organised a volunteer training close to Tallinn. Hugo Nijkamp (Sea Alarm) and Claude Velter (Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Ostend) were asked to lecture on this training. Read more…
As a side event of the Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference, Sea Alarm organised a debrief with most of the responders that were part of the international team that assisted in the oiled wildlife response in Norway, following the Full City oil spill incident. The main conclusion from the debrief was that the team without doubt had made a very strong contribution to the success of the Norwegian response. Read more…
