Prepared and ready for oiled wildlife response
SANCCOB is a member of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS). To address increased recognition of oiled wildlife as a core component of tiered preparedness for oil spills, the GOWRS was initiated in 2015 to develop a Tier 3 (international) system for oiled wildlife response and we are the only South African entity. This project brought together ten of the world’s leading oiled wildlife preparedness and response organisations in order to develop key readiness guidance documents to ensure professional, effective preparedness and response.
The organisations currently involved in the GOWRS network include the following:
Aiuká (Brazil); Focus Wildlife International (US/Canada); International Bird Rescue (USA); Oiled Wildlife Care Network, UC Davis (USA); PRO Bird (Germany); RSPCA (UK); SANCCOB (South Africa); Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc. (USA); Wildbase, Massey University (NZ); and Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend (Belgium).
The GOWRS Project is now operational and as of 2022, this wildlife response has become part of Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) Service Level Agreement (SLA). GOWRS is a ready‐to‐deploy Assessment Team of four wildlife response experts, drawn from 10 leading international wildlife response organisations, which will be available 24/7/365 to deploy for a four‐day in‐country incident assessment.