SAF provides preparedness and response training to IOPC Funds

The Claims Management Team of IOPC Funds invited Sea Alarm to give a two-day tailored Oiled Wildlife Preparedness and Planning course in early December. Hugo Nijkamp, Saskia Sessions and Claude Velter presented the course, the highlight of which was an integrated table top exercise, where aspects of planning and response efficiency could be practiced. The various presentations sparked off interesting and informed discussions on the position of wildlife response in claims and claims management, and the contents of section 3.1.4. in the Fund’s Claims Manual. The course demonstrated that the quality of oiled wildlife response is highly related to the level of planning and preparedness. The financial consequences of decision making in a wildlife response can potentially be considerable and decision making is easily influenced by emotions that develop with the public following media reports on oiled wildlife. The question whether or not claims for the compensation of these costs in the light of international mechanisms are considered reasonable has not often become highlighted in the framework of the 1992 Funds Convention. The course enabled the IOPC Funds Team to better understand the various complexities of a wildlife response in relation to the wide differences in levels of preparedness that are found across the globe.