France has explicit instructions in place for wildlife response plans. They are well integrated into the overall oil spill response plan as Annex 5 of the French Polmar Land oil spill plan, for which the local administrations are responsible.
Each competent sub-national authority has to develop this Annex 5 according to a standard format. There are 26 coastal ‘départements’ in France (not counting overseas departments). In some of them, the Annex 5 is completed, in others, the working groups are still drafting it. The Polmar Sea plans of the 3 seaboards of “continental” France also include an Annex on wildlife rescue, giving the resources and specialised organisations who could be called on to provide oiled wildlife response services during an incident. Click here to access the Atlantic Polmar Sea plan (in French, see Annex v.9).
In the aftermath of the Erika incident, French NGOs jointly developed a detailed plan and standard methodology for setting up a wildlife response centre and the cleaning and rehabilitation of oiled birds (Les soins aux oiseaux mazoutés: exemple du centre de soins de l’Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Nantes, Ferlaux et al., 2002. Bulletin de la Société des sciences naturelles de l’Ouest de la France, vol. 24(1):12-34).