A national wildlife crime conference with a difference will take place in spring 2015. Entitled ‘Eyes in the Field’, it’s being organised by the campaign group Birders Against Wildlife Crime, the team who instigated this year’s highly successful Hen Harrier Day.
What’s different about this conference is that it’s open to the general public. Most wildlife crime conferences have restricted access and are aimed predominantly at police wildlife crime enforcers, with a limited number of places made available to members of certain wildlife NGOs. This particular conference, however, has been designed specifically for the general public and aims to provide a broad range of information to enable us all to effectively tackle wildlife crime.
There’s an interesting line-up of speakers, including prominent wildlife campaigners (Mark Avery, Chris Packham, Dominic Dyer), wildlife crime investigators (Bob Elliot from the RSPB and Paul Tillesley from the League Against Cruel Sports), a wildlife crime training consultant (Craig Fellowes), a Police Crime Commissioner (Alan Charles), a wildlife researcher (Ruth Tingay) and a politician (Chris Williamson MP).
As well as a series of presentations, there’ll also be an open panel debate with audience participation.
The conference will take place in Buxton, Derbyshire on Saturday 21st March 2015. Tickets are now on sale (£40) and are probably going to sell quite quickly.
For full details & booking etc see the conference webpage here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Excellent…get as much publicity for this as you can…pleased to see there are no compromise or “isnt shooting wonderful for wildlife” apologists here…or gamekeepers defence lawyers…or grouse moor owners…or shooting judges..in fact, totally unlike a police wildlife crime conference?..[or at least unlike such conferences since the mid 1990s!!]