Military Police to deploy new all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and surveillance drones to combat environmental crime
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- Date: 25.09.2023
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To prevent and combat environmental crime as part of its environmental protection enforcement duties, the Slovak Military Police has started operating new all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and surveillance drones after using €150,000 in grant funding on the equipment from the Ministry of Environment (MOE)-administered Environmental Fund. The money has gone towards the purchase of three all-terrain four-wheelers (including accessories such as helmets, windscreens, etc.) and four surveillance drones.
The assets will significantly increase the mobility and operability of Military Police (MP) personnel on patrol duties, whilst preventing or detecting illegal environmental activity across the woodlands and other grounds of the Military Districts (MDs) and Záhorie, Lešť and Valaškovce Military Training Areas (MTAs), according to Director of the Slovak Military Police Col Valentín Cebo.
In a statement, Secretary General of the MOD Service Office Peter Kozák underscored the MOD's ability to obtain funding, including from several sources, for equipment modernisation, saying: “We are always looking for ways to get involved in projects outside of our normal budget resources. A special category in which weʼve made progress – largely thanks to extra-budgetary financing (EBF) – is the implementation of activities in environmental protection enforcement, whether that be remediating environmental burdens or combating environmental crime. There is only one nature – that’s the same whether it be for the military districts or outside of them, and so Iʼm pleased weʼve managed to combine the interest in protecting environment with the requirements on the defence of the State.”
This is the historically first grant awarded to the MOD from the MOE's Environmental Fund, which was made possible by a change in legislation as the 2022 Environmental Fund Amendment Act makes the MOD an entity with responsibility for environmental protection enforcement and hence eligible for funding.
The assets will significantly increase the mobility and operability of Military Police (MP) personnel on patrol duties, whilst preventing or detecting illegal environmental activity across the woodlands and other grounds of the Military Districts (MDs) and Záhorie, Lešť and Valaškovce Military Training Areas (MTAs), according to Director of the Slovak Military Police Col Valentín Cebo.
In a statement, Secretary General of the MOD Service Office Peter Kozák underscored the MOD's ability to obtain funding, including from several sources, for equipment modernisation, saying: “We are always looking for ways to get involved in projects outside of our normal budget resources. A special category in which weʼve made progress – largely thanks to extra-budgetary financing (EBF) – is the implementation of activities in environmental protection enforcement, whether that be remediating environmental burdens or combating environmental crime. There is only one nature – that’s the same whether it be for the military districts or outside of them, and so Iʼm pleased weʼve managed to combine the interest in protecting environment with the requirements on the defence of the State.”
This is the historically first grant awarded to the MOD from the MOE's Environmental Fund, which was made possible by a change in legislation as the 2022 Environmental Fund Amendment Act makes the MOD an entity with responsibility for environmental protection enforcement and hence eligible for funding.
