Prosecutors participated in working sessions on the illegal use of poisons and other illicit substances.
On May 16th and June 3rd, two working sessions for the magistrates on the protocol of action in the scope of the Antidote Portugal Program (PAP), and on legal protection of species and trafficking of protected species happened in the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Évora and in the Eduardo Lourenço Municipal Library of Guarda, respectively.
In addition to the issues related to the new protocol of action in the context of the PAP, which refers to cases of illegal use of poisons and which has recently been updated following the work initiated by LIFE Imperial Project, the sessions included presentations on the Imperial Eagle and on the monitoring system of Iberian Wolf (in the case of Guarda). The topics related to the GNR intervention on environmental illicit activities, the legal framework for the protection of wildlife species and the trafficking of protected species were also discussed.
The first meeting was attended by magistrates from the counties of Beja and Évora and in the second session magistrates from the counties of Castelo Branco and Guarda, a total of about forty prosecutors working in the municipalities of the intervention area of the LIFE Imperial Project.
In these events, sponsored by the Attorney General's Office of Diffusion and Collective Interests, which also had communications from the ICNF and the GNR, the LPN addressed aspects related to the protection of the Imperial Eagle and the threats arising from illegal acts, as part of the action to reinforce the effectiveness of the legal proceedings of the LIFE Imperial.
The articulation between the various interested parties aims to increase the training of the various intervention agents and improve their capacity to act on the legislation and jurisdiction of species protection and crimes against them, seeking to increase the number of convictions. This increase, in addition to the directly related punitive effect, would represent a preventive effect, as a deterrent to possible illegal acts.
These actions are aimed at reconciling efforts for a more incisive action in cases of crimes against nature, which becomes particularly relevant when dealing with species with a high conservation status such as the Imperial Eagle, where unnatural threats may lead to the entire national population.
