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Blackcap / Sylvia atricapilla by Yves Adams

Blackcap / Sylvia atricapilla by Yves Adams

Bird trapping with nets continues to decline, limestick use levels worrying

March 2, 2023
Categories
  • Cyprus
  • Eurasian Blackcap
  • Uncategorized
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Cyprus

This article was first published on birdlifecyprus.org

The BirdLife Cyprus report on bird trapping levels for autumn 2022 paints a promising picture, with bird trapping with nets almost halved (49%) compared to autumn 2021 (and have decreased by 91% since 2002).

This encouraging decrease is recorded both within the British Bases in Dhekelia and in the Republic and is due to the ongoing collaboration between environmental organisations (namely BirdLife Cyprus, the RSPB and CABS) and the competent authorities to tackle this illegal activity. The imposing of high fines – starting from 2000 euros – for the trapping of birds with the use of nets has also helped.

While the reduction is promising, this nevertheless continues to amount to thousands of birds illegally trapped and killed every year. More specifically, in autumn 2022 alone it is estimated that 345,000 birds could have been trapped and killed within the survey areas covered by BirdLife Cyprus’ monitoring programme.

The problem persists in certain areas within the Republic, where large-scale organized trappers continue unhindered in the absence of the effective action of the Cyprus Police Anti-Poaching Unit, which was inexcusably disbanded in November 2019. Moreover, the relaxation in fines from €2000 to €200 for the killing of up to 50 birds using limesticks, making penalties neither punitive nor deterrent, has indirectly decriminalized this trapping method and has resulted in an increase in limestick use the last few years.

BirdLife Cyprus calls on the new President, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides, to:

  • See his pre-election commitment through and reinstate the Cyprus Police Anti-Poaching unit, in order to more effectively deal with large-scale organised trappers as well as violence/threats from trappers.
  • Annul the law relaxation and increase the fines to €2000 for all birds, regardless of killing method or bird species.

Only then will Cyprus be able to deliver the final blow to the scourge of illegal bird trapping.

More information on BirdLife Cyprus’ monitoring programme and the 2022 trapping report can be found here.

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Stichting BirdLife Europe and BirdLife International gratefully acknowledge financial support from the MAVA Foundation, the EU LIFE programme, the European Commission and Vogelbescherming Nederland (BirdLife Netherlands).
All content and opinions expressed on these pages are solely those of Stichting BirdLife Europe.
"Flight for Survival" is partially funded by the LIFE Against Bird Crime project. More information is available here.

Over 25 000 000 million birds are illegally killed around the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and the Caucasus every year. For non-rounded, mean numbers, and minimum/maximum estimates, see: Preliminary assessment of the scope and scale of illegal killing and taking of birds in the Mediterranean (Brochet et al 2016) and Illegal killing and taking of Birds in Europe outside the Mediterranean: assessing the scope and scale of a complex issue (Brochet et al., 2018)

“Flight for Survival” is a BirdLife International campaign managed by Stichting BirdLife Europe to raise awareness about the illegal killing of birds in Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Bulgaria and Hungary, and their conservation activities to fight this.” The species storylines for this campaign are heavily inspired by the information available on the migration habits of the selected birds.

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