EUROWA-2 project comes to a close, with great success

After 2 years and a 5 month extension, the EUROWA-2 project has drawn to a close. The project was coordinated by Sea Alarm and its aim was to improve Europe’s overall preparedness for oiled wildlife emergencies, which has been achieved. EUROWA-2 was made possible thanks to co-funding from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

A complete overview of the deliverables can be found here, and below is an overview of the key highlights of the project: 

• The creation of a new sea turtle expert branch along with a new turtle protocol, and Basic and Advanced trainings for oiled sea turtle responders. 
• Delivery of 7 different training courses, with a total of 91 people trained.  
• Development of a new Risk and Impact Assessment course for marine wildlife emergencies with a focus on seabird populations. 
• The launch of the strategic document ‘The Future of professional oiled wildlife response in Europe’ which calls on authorities to get better prepared for an oiled wildlife incident and outlines the path forward. 
• Development and launch of the brand new WildX Tabletop exercise package, which explores different strategies for oiled wildlife response in an informative and interactive way. 
• 3 national authority workshops, two online and one held in Brussels, which trained authorities from across Europe to on the challenges of an oiled wildlife response and how to get better prepared.
• A series of animation videos aimed at authorities to inform them about the challenges they will face with an oiled wildlife response, how to take a professional approach in responding with the assistance of EUROWA experts. 

Sea Alarm is proud to have led the project, together with Submon, WWF Finland and The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). We would also like to thank the rest of the EUROWA member organisations and affiliate members who continue their dedication to the Network and provide their valuable expertise. We look forward to continuing to work together on oiled wildlife response and preparedness.

For further information, contact secretariat@eurowa.eu