Each Police Force in Scotland has a Police Wildlife Crime Co-ordinator who is responsible for its work in tackling wildlife crimes and for co-ordinating the force's network of Police wildlife crime officers (PWCO). The MCofS believes that hillwalkers and climbers can play a vital role in the fight against wildlife crime, whether it is in Scotland or across the world. The nature of our activities mean that we may witness wildlife crimes being committed or find evidence of crimes after they have been committed. Furthermore, we may see wildlife crime, or its evidence, when we are overseas, for example the sale of illegal products in markets or the hunting of protected species.

Wildlife crime was covered in a guest article by Alan Stewart of Tayside Police in The Scottish Mountaineer 2 (May 1999). As a result of that article a number of clubs contacted their local PWCO to arrange a club talk on the issue of Wildlife Crime, and since then the MCofS has helped put local climbers in touch with PWCO's so that climbers can lend their local knowledge about recreational use of crags when there is suspicion of criminals operating in a particular area.

In order to make it easier for hillwalkers and climbers to make contact with a Police Wildlife Crime Co-ordinator we are listing the contact details of the co-ordinator for each of the Scottish forces. Please use these contacts to report suspicious incidents that you come across, or to arrange for a club talk from a PWCO.