Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

Training Police, Stopping Trade

12 October 2012

Categories: Homepage News, Marine Campaign News

Profauna delegates and senior officials of Bali police; © ProFauna

From protecting turtle nests and surveying wildlife markets to raising awareness and rescuing animals, ProFauna are at the frontline of wildlife protection in Indonesia. Born Free are proud to have been supporting the work of ProFauna’s Bali Office alongside Humane Society International (Australia) since 2006. 

Partnering with another local group, the Indonesian NGO ProFauna recently conducted a training workshop in wildlife law enforcement for Bali’s police officers.

Born Free is particularly supportive of initiatives which strengthen the capacity of authorities to enforce a country’s laws - it is an all too common story throughout the world that the existence of adequate laws to protect wildlife is, on its own, insufficient to prevent these laws being broken. The ability of authorities to engage in effective enforcement of these laws is often lacking, one of the main reasons being a lack of access to relevant training of enforcement personnel.   

During the September workshop, ProFauna instructed the police officers in the identification of commonly sold wildlife, methods used by wildlife smugglers and relevant legislation. For example, a technique recently employed by poachers which ProFauna was able to reveal to those present involves cutting up the poached sea turtles rather than transporting them as whole carcasses, since pieces of meat are much harder to detect and identify.

Such training exercises also serve to strengthen bonds of collaboration, with authorities represented at the workshop and at a subsequent meeting pledging to continue working closely with ProFauna on raising public awareness, receiving further wildlife law enforcement training and ending the trade in sea turtles on Bali.

Read more on ProFauna and click here for more of their activities in 2012.