The “LOBO24” exercise, held on the Iberian border between Portugal and Spain, focused on training security forces to combat environmental crimes, such as fires and illegal water use.
Over four days, the Spanish GNR and the Civil Guard involved hundreds of operational and technical resources in the cross-border exercise “LOBO24”, whose mission was to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the investigation of complex environmental crimes.
The Iberian exercise “LOBO24” ended this Friday and took place in the border territory of Mogadouro, in the district of Bragançaand Fermoselle, in the Spanish province of Castilla y León, where soldiers linked to the Nature and Environment Protection Service (SEPNA) of the GNR and the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Civil Guard created real scenarios of attacks against the environment. such as forest fires, the abusive use of water in dry regions or attacks against fauna and flora and the use of gases that cause greenhouse effects.
Talking to Lusa, the colonel of the GNR, Jorge Amado stated that Portugal and Spain have very similar structures in terms of environmental protection services.and it is important that these two police forces train and improve the procedures and techniques learned in military specialization courses.
“This operational exercise in a real scenario, carried out for the first time on the Iberian border, had four incidents that multiplied in many other scenarios and that led to operational training between both entities, to standardize procedures in terms of legislation, the various practices illicit actions that may arise at an environmental level in the two Iberian countries,” he explained.
For the GNR, the European “Life” program for the protection of fauna and flora, forest fires, which impact forest ecosystems with the consequent destruction of the habitats of Iberian fauna.
The impact of poisons placed in the soil to eliminate predators such as wolves or birds of prey, which end up dying, compromising the entire protection of wildlife through food chains.
“We have specialized equipment of SEPNA and SEPRONA, in the protected areas of Duero Internacional and Arribes del Duero monitor and act in this area of poisons harmful to wildlife in this border area. In addition to poison situations, scenarios for the release of harmful gases that cause the greenhouse effect were also trained,” said Jorge Amado.
Another alert is the transport of pine wood that the GNR wants to control on both sides of the Portuguese border with Spain, through inspection actions.
The second commander of SEPRONA of the Spanish Civil Guard, Júlio Serrano, explained that this exercise gave the two security forces the opportunity to work together in situations that arise along the entire border between both countries.
“We have to learn from each other. (…) In the future we must demonstrate our strengths and weaknesses to have better cooperation in our missions”indicated the person in charge of SEPRONA.
For Guadia Civil, the biggest environmental attacks in the Iberian Peninsula are forest fires, misuse of water for agricultural purposes or other unauthorized purposes.
“Every year we have thousands of fires set by arsonists to profit for various reasons. There is also another crime closely associated with climate change, which is the illicit extraction of water, because the Iberian Peninsula in the southern regions does not have these resources in abundance, with unauthorized use being another important problem,” highlighted Júlio Serrano.
During the “LOBO24” exercise, the aim was also to evaluate the processes of planning and carrying out exercises, integrating the improvements identified in other previous joint actions, and to obtain experience to develop the chained processes of environmental investigation as environmental police in both countries.
Source: Observadora
