Bases say ‘robust’ policy has slashed bird trapping by up to 90 per cent

THE BRITISH bases said yesterday that combined efforts of Cypriot authorities, NGOs and their own police had reduced the number of bird trappers by between 80 and 90 per cent.

Dhekelia base police chief Jim Guy told reporters yesterday that as migration season was approaching, authorities were anticipating an increase in activity by trappers.
For the past five years we have adopted a particularly robust approach to the problem in our area,” Guy said, referring to the joint effort by the Cyprus Game Services, Birdlife International, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Birds, and the Cyprus police.

“Our strategy is based on education, raising local awareness and enforcement,” Guy said.

Since the strategy was adopted, he said 224 arrests had been made and 2,500 mist nets seized. He reiterated that potential trappers face fines of up to £10,000 and imprisonment of up to three years for the illegal trapping of birds. “Last year we had the first-ever sentence of imprisonment, albeit suspended, imposed on a trapper,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.