For EUROWA news
The EUROWA Charter is in place and signed by 8 organisations, which signifies that EUROWA now exists as a formal network to further professionalism in European oiled wildlife preparedness and response.
In June and July 2020, the EUROWA pages of www.oiledwildlife.eu were updated and refreshed, reflecting important changes within EUROWA.
A EUROWA BASIC oiled wildlife responder course was held on 8 February 2020 in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, under the framework of the Dutch national Oiled Wildlife Project 2017-22, financed by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water.
EUROWA Network partner Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend hosted an international Advanced oiled wildlife responder event in Belgium earlier this year at the Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend. This is the sixth time the EUROWA Advanced course has been run in Europe.
Over the past four years, hundreds of European responders have opted to attend EUROWA training courses and obtain recognised qualifications in order to be better prepared to provide assistance during an oiled wildlife incident.
Spanish oiled wildlife response stakeholders came together on 3 and 4 March 2020 in Madrid at the headquarters of the Fundación Biodiversidad for an oiled wildlife workshop focused on improving processes for oiled wildlife response at the regional and national level. The workshop was made possible by funding from Aramco in support of the EUROWA Initiative and from the EU's Life+ programme.
In September, Sea Alarm, in cooperation with WWF Poland, presented a National Workshop on Oiled Wildlife Response Planning in Poland, followed by a EUROWA Basic Response training.
The one day workshop was attended by 32 representatives from Poland’s national authorities, the oil and gas industry, and non-governmental organisations, all brought together by WWF Poland.
In June 2019, EURopean Oiled Wildlife Assistance (EUROWA) Network members, and interested potential members, met in Ostende to strengthen their cooperation and define the decision-making structure which will support EUROWA’s function in European oil spill response and preparedness.
In April 2019, sixteen veterinarians from seven European nations attended a course in Ostend, Belgium to earn the Veterinary Specialist Qualification under the EURopean Oiled Wildlife Assistance (EUROWA) network.
A new oiled wildlife preparedness project, which builds on the previously EU-funded European Oiled Wildlife Response Assistance (EUROWA) training and preparedness programme, is underway.
Funding from Aramco’s Citizenship Programme will enable an effective roll-out of this new EUROWA project, which will serve as a one-year pilot to test and inform a longer-term expansion of the programme.
