Again, I was sponsored to attend BAWC 2016. Thank you to the sponsors, it was great seeing more young people there compared to last year. There were many familiar faces again and I met and had some amazing conversations with many new people. Sorry if you were there and I didn't say hi, hopefully ill see you at next years.
The conference was held at the Brunel's Institute in Bristol. It was a long drive down, but the two day even was great! There were so many speakers this year, so ill just do a break down for each of them.
First day- 12/3/2016
- Charlie Moores- welcomed everyone to the conference
- David Lindo- The Urban Birder
This was one of my favourite talks as Rob showed us what happens behind the scenes in police divisions. It showed the amount of work put in by police and how to them and the law, there is no such thing as a wildlife crime
- Dr Louise Robinson- Lecturer in forensic biology at the University of Derby
Emily talked about how their work helps police forces. We were also showed a very interesting survey they had done on the police forces in the UK, grading them on how well or how badly they tackle wildlife crime.
Bobs talk was another of my favourites. He is very passionate about what he does and it comes across as so. He talked about several wildlife crime cases he and/or his team have dealt with.
- Stewart Rowden- Avon bat group
Marks was the last talk of the day and again was very passionate about campaigning against wildlife crime. He talked about driven grouse shooting on moors and says we will win!
Second day- 13/3/2016
- Mike Dilger- Why wildlife crime need not be turn-off TV
- Pauline Kidner- Secret world wildlife rescue founder
- Ian Guildford- Enforcements perspective
- Geoff Edmond- Aspects of wildlife crime. Are there more issues than we realise? RSPCA
- Craig Jones- Wildlife Photographer
- Keith Betton- Vice president of BTO
- Dominic Dyer- CEO of Badger Trust
- Charlie Moores- summing up the weekend
Overall it was a great conference and a great weekend. I can't wait till next years and hope there are more younger people there and another mixture of fantastic speakers all passionate about wildlife crime who can show different aspects of it, based around RECOGNISING, RECORDING and REPORTING. I got to spend the three days with Ryan which was great. We saw a few birds, but it was great being at the conference with him as it got us discussing about wildlife crime and what we can do to help!