EUROWA trainers collaborate with IFAW and Sea Alarm to provide oiled wildlife response training for Red Sea countries

During March and April, EUROWA experts successfully delivered a series of online oiled wildlife response training events to authority representatives, scientists and veterinarians from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Yemen (the legitimate government), Jordan, Sudan and Egypt.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s regional office for the Middle East and North Africa (IFAW MENA), organised and hosted the online events, which took place in the framework of an initiative between IFAW and Sea Alarm to create a road map for developing capacity for oiled wildlife preparedness in countries neighbouring the Red Sea. This was the very first time the EUROWA network has formally collaborated with organisations and countries in this part of the world.

EUROWA trainers Sascha Regmann (Pro Bird) and Claude Velter (Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend) successfully delivered a EUROWA BASIC (theory) training course followed by a EUROWA Specialist Vet (theory) training course, jointly delivered by Ian Robinson (EUROWA expert) and Philippe Gourlay (CVFSE, ONIRIS-Nantes). The Wildlife Branch Director training course was delivered by Sea Alarm. Courses were conducted in Arabic courtesy of simultaneous translation provided by interpretation agency Al-Oula.

The courses received very high evaluation scores from the 104 participants who attended, and
while Covid-19 restrictions meant that participants could only be exposed to the theoretical elements, several of them recognised the importance of the topic and expressed their interest and hope to be able to complete the practical portions in the future. EUROWA and Sea Alarm look forward to pursuing that option once travel is less restricted, and to assisting the participants with their oiled wildlife preparedness efforts in the region.

IFAW’s blog post here provides more information on the project.