Fighting wildlife crime, together
Photo © 1) Justo Martín 2) Iñigo Fajardo 3) Iñigo Fajardo
It’s a $20 billion global criminal enterprise.
It fuels trafficking and corruption, threatens public health, and drives protected species to extinction – often with no consequences to offenders.
The WildLIFE Crime Academy is confronting this threat. Across 9 countries in Europe, the Caucasus, and North Africa, we are building the skills, tools, and networks needed to investigate and prosecute wildlife crime.
Our goal: Make wildlife crime high-risk and low-reward.
25M+ birds illegally killed each year in the Mediterranean
2M more killed in Northern & Central Europe and the Caucasus
Wildlife crime is worth $20 billion globally
Only 10–15% of illegal wildlife trade is intercepted in Europe
115 vultures die annually from poisoning in the Balkans
4,000 species affected by wildlife trafficking
We train law enforcement, forensic experts, prosecutors and conservationists through a three-level Wildlife Crime Academy programme. Up to 100 professionals will be trained in Spain, who will then train 1,000+ others in their home countries.
GPS tracking of high-risk species combined with mobile reporting tools to detect poisoning events in real time, enabling field teams to respond instantly and improve conservation and enforcement efforts.
It’s time to close the enforcement gap – and raise the stakes.
By 2029, we aim to:
Increase wildlife crime investigations by 30%
Cut total wildlife crime incidents by 10–20%
Implement national roadmaps in 9 countries
Prosecute 10+ cases using project protocols
Build a network of 600+ enforcement professionals
Sustain national training beyond the project’s end
The seizure of nearly 30,000 live animals in just one month marks a major success for law enforcement, but it also uncovers the massive scale of global wildlife crime. Operation Thunder 2025, led by INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization
The past year has marked a decisive step forward for the Wildlife Crime Academy (WCA), transforming an already proven training model into a truly international platform for cooperation, capacity building and enforcement against wildlife crime. From the launch of the WildLIFE Crime Academy LIFE
A new study published in Oryx takes a rare, data-focused look at how environmental crime appears within one of the world’s main international enforcement tools: Interpol Red Notices. Interpol Red Notices are alerts issued by member countries to seek
The WildLIFE Crime Academy is co-financed by the EU’s LIFE Programme, with a total budget of €2 million.
It is led by the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), alongside Ministerul Mediului (Romania’s Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests), DOPPS – BirdLife Slovenia, Centar za zaštitu i proučavanje ptica (Birdlife Montenegro), and Taskent Doga Parki (Taskent Nature Park).
Together, we are working with ministries, NGOs, researchers, and enforcement teams in Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Montenegro, Georgia, northern part of Cyprus, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.
