CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has trained partner agencies and officers on the application of the Wildlife Law.

The DENR, in a statement, said this is to strengthen its wildlife enforcement efforts by training DENR field officers and partner government agencies on the application of the Wildlife Law Enforcement Manual of Operations.

Arthur Salazar, assistant regional director for technical services, said wildlife law enforcement plays a crucial role in ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources, since illegal wildlife trade remains to be one of the primary threats to the region’s abundant biodiversity.

The DENR added that a three-day learning activity, held on September 11 to 13 at Azzurro Hotel, centered on the enforcement of Republic Act 9147, otherwise known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001. This provided participants the standard operating procedures on monitoring, surveillance, confiscation of wildlife specimen, evidence-gathering, case-building, and apprehension of law violators.

The National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Law, fisheries enforcement protocol, procedures on wildlife permitting, wildlife handling and safety management, and the legal bases used for environmental cases were also discussed.