22nd March 2023

BORN FREE SPEAKS OUT FOR STRONGER ACTION AGAINST WILDLIFE CRIME

Born Free’s UK Policy Advisor, Dominic Dyer, spoke at the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Conference to encourage tougher action on wildlife crime.

The Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) is a collaboration of UK statutory and non-governmental organisations that work together to reduce wildlife crime.

PAW’s key objectives are to:

• raise awareness of wildlife legislation and the impact of wildlife crime
• provide help and advice on wildlife crime and regulatory issues
• make sure wildlife crime is tackled effectively

The secretariat for PAW is provided by the Department of Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). They organised a conference for the forum at the Zoological Society of London on Monday 20th March.

The conference, the first for four years, brought together over 150 attendees from across the country including police officers, enforcement agencies, academics, government officials and NGO representatives from the wildlife protection and animal welfare sector, including the Born Free Foundation.

The conference covered a number of key areas including the National Police Chiefs Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy, the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit, how Border Force is tackling wildlife crime, the illegal use pesticides to kill wild animals, and the work of Kew Gardens in tackling plant crime around the world.

Born Free’s UK Policy Advisor Dominic Dyer, who chairs the Wildlife and Countryside Link’s Wildlife Crime Group, made a presentation at the conference focusing on the importance of making wildlife crime a recordable offence, the need for more deterrent sentences for convicted wildlife criminals, and the need for tighter enforcement of the Hunting Act to prevent the illegal killing of wildlife with hounds.

For more information on the work of PAW see www.gov.uk/government/groups/partnership-for-action-against-wildlife-crime