Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

In many countries, experience and expertise in oiled wildlife response sits primarily within Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), therefore their integration into a national response system is crucial during an incident. In addition to the scientific fields, these NGOs normally work in one or more of the different aspects of a response, including wildlife rehabilitation, animal welfare, volunteer coordination or conservation.

 

Oiled wildlife emergency management and response teams

Management and co-ordination assistance for oiled wildlife emergencies can be provided by certain organisations. Sea Alarm runs a 24/7 emergency response service and can be contacted in case of an incident. If the incident needs an internationally coordinated response, Sea Alarm would call upon the expertise of other experienced European organisations, such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the International Fund of Animal Welfare (IFAW). This pool of responders, consisting of response organisations and individual experts, would travel to the site of an incident and assist in the response where expertise is requested by local organisations. The main organisations with teams capable of responding internationally are listed below.

European Response Teams

International Response Teams

North American Response Teams

 

Oiled wildlife rehabilitation centres

In many coastal countries, permanent wildlife rehabilitation centres exist that have experience in dealing with the rehabilitation of oiled wildlife. Increasingly, national coastal rehabilitation centres have started cooperating together to plan for oiled wildlife incident response. This is the case in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK where individual rehabilitation centres have joined forces to create national networks. These national networks strengthen country-wide response capacity for incidents and provide for a more efficient and co-ordinated response by allowing sharing of resources, equipment and information.

When a coastal country faces an oiled wildlife incident, the national rehabilitation centres are the first line of response. Live animals are brought to these centres as they are recognised as the most appropriate centres of expertise.

Wildlife rehabilitation centres should develop their own oiled wildlife response plan, ideally matching the requirements of the national oiled wildlife strategy. Personnel should have a minimum level of knowledge of how to perform their designated role and to deal with the oiled animals. The Handbook on Wildlife Rehabilitation provides useful guidance.