Training for Airport Wildlife Control Personnel: The IBSC Recommendation

ICAO Annex 14, chapter 9.4, sets as a worldwide standard the control of airport wildlife hazards by ‘competent’ airport personnel. Unfortunately ICAO provides no guidance as to what constitutes competence or properly trained personnel. The International Birdstrike Committee sought to develop a ‘best practice’ for the training of airport wildlife control personnel by forming a Working Group to develop a training recommendation. Surprisingly the Working Group found almost no state guidelines worldwide and little in the way of informal training guidelines among ICAO states reviewed. Using input from various national regulatory agencies, informal programs and the working group’s wildlife control experience, a ‘best practice’ was developed and forwarded to IBSC for approval. This training guideline addresses not only the qualifications of the trainers, but also the subject matter to be covered and the issue of recurrent/requalification training of airport wildlife control personnel.