MESSAGES FOR POLICE FORCES - MODULES ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND AWARENESS GEARED TO EUROPEAN POLICE FORCES

The Slovenian government long term strategy involves the strategy of conservation of the environment and nature with the Slovenian regulations and legislation based on the balance between development and environmental needs. From production to consumption, human activity causes pollution or certain strains on the environment by releasing and discharging substances, noise and light into the environment. Huge environmental problems have been caused by the consumption needs of human beings that live or want to live in a country that can satisfy their needs. As a result, air, soil and water quality, and the quality of everything which derives from them, are under threat. Environmental problems must be dealt with in collaboration with all those responsible for their occurrence and removal. The purpose of police training is to enable the police to carry out high-quality prevention and law enforcement work. Slovenia has adopted the National Environmental Protection Programme (NEPP), published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia (Ur. l. RS, 83/99) and they are supplementing this year when we became a member of EU. Slovenia is fortunate to be one of those countries in transition where the environmental consequences of the former socialist-style economy are less pronounced. Nevertheless, the rapid and, in terms of environmental impact, uncontrolled industrialisation and urbanisation of the fast few decades following the Second World War severely degraded nearly all elements of the environment. This article aims to identify the essential knowledge of natural sciences required by police and other state and local authorities engaged in environmental protection. It includes a presentation of the prospects of education and training for sustainable development within the framework of Slovenia's sustainable development strategy. It provides an overview of environmental training as a basis of environmental protection policy both nationally as well as in Europe; the role of formal education/training programs together with less formal types of basic and advanced training for continual on-going development. The comprehension of the basic principles of natural sciences together with the application of new methods and techniques can be successfully utilised in a more effective prevention and detection of environmental criminal acts.