The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Ana Leiva, participated today in the presentation of the DVD “SOS Veneno”, published by the Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture. Ana Leiva has been accompanied by the president of the Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture, Juan José Sánchez, and by the Lieutenant Colonel of the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard (SEPRONA), Modesto Píriz.

The publication of this DVD is part of the project “SOS Veneno. Actions against the use of poison in Spain and Portugal”, which are carried out jointly by the Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture and the Biodiversity Foundation. This initiative aims to contribute to the eradication of the use of poisoned baits for predator control, which affects threatened protected species, and to support the National Strategy against the Illegal Use of Poisoned Baits.

Through this DVD it is intended, on the one hand, to disseminate with an informative nature the problem of poison in Spain and the means available to fight against it. On the other hand, to show in a direct and practical way the protocol that the agents of the authority (SEPRONA or Environmental Agents) must follow for the removal and custody of the animals or baits allegedly poisoned.

2,500 copies of this audiovisual material have been published, 1,700 will be distributed among the SEPRONA units, while the rest will be disseminated among different sectors such as hunters, ranchers and conservationists, and in general, to society as a whole. The DVD, 28 minutes long, incorporates the new resources that are currently available for the fight against the illegal use of poison, such as specialized dog patrols or new technologies applied to the control of this threat (GPS, digital cameras, or databases, among others).

Likewise, this project carried out by the Biodiversity Foundation and the Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture constitutes a contribution to the Antidote Program to fight poison in the natural environment in Spain and Portugal, in which different entities such as the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, General Directorates of the Environment of several Autonomous Communities, SEPRONA, the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation, different nature conservation NGOs in Spain and agricultural unions.

In addition to the edition of this DVD, this initiative aims to extend the Spanish experience against the use of poison to other European countries, contribute to its detection, facilitate the action of the competent authorities, increase awareness and promote the participation of the general public, promote judicial proceedings, increase the effectiveness of the resources available in the fight against poison, and to renew a common front of organizations in relation to this problem.

Another of the actions included in this project is the maintenance, management and dissemination of the SOS Veneno telephone, a free telephone number created in 1999 to answer calls related to the procedure for action in cases of poisoning and to report cases of poison that are transmitted to the competent authorities and NGOs involved in the Antidote Programme. During 2007, this toll-free line received 565 calls related to incidents of wildlife poisoning. Up to October 2008 the figure stands at 445 calls.

The toll-free line 900 713 182 attends to possible complaints about the illegal use of poison in any locality of the national territory and is intended to be a tool to encourage the participation of citizens in conservation, raise the level of social awareness about the negative consequences of the illegal use of poison, achieve citizen collaboration in the detection and reporting of its use in the natural environment and ensure that this social collaboration is effective.

The SOS Veneno Telephone is an effective reference service where useful information can be collected for Law Enforcement Agents, technicians, veterinarians, or the media.