‘Reduction in Spring trapping levels and record fine for mist netting conviction give hope ahead of the autumn migration season’
SPRING bird trapping showed a downturn in 2009, the first good news on the Cyprus trapping front for two years, BirdLife Cyprus said yesterday.
The news from the conservation group’s March and April field surveillance gives hope ahead of the autumn, when migrant birds will once more flood through the island, the organisation said.
Tens of thousands of birds – mostly migrants from mainland Europe on route to and from Africa – continue to be illegally trapped each spring, autumn and winter in Cyprus.
Snared on limesticks and in mist nets, the birds are sold as expensive ambelopoulia delicacies in local restaurants. Increasingly organised trappers supply law-breaking tavernas with Blackcap warblers and other small insect-eating birds, which sell to diners for up to €80 a dozen.
“This is hardly the end of the battle, but if the encouraging trend we recorded this Spring carries through into the main, autumn trapping season then we can begin to speak of a reversal of the negative trends recorded over the past two years” said BirdLife Cyprus Executive Director, Dr Clairie Papazoglou.
Survey data showed a reduction in trapping activity during the spring of 2009 compared to the spring of 2008 – the first drop in trapping activity recorded for two years.
“The reduction is testimony to the ongoing efforts of the enforcement bodies, the Game Fund, SBA Police and Cyprus Police anti-poaching unit, recently set up to help combat illegal bird killing,” said BirdLife.
The other good news from the spring was an April decision by a Larnaca court to fine a repeat trapping offender a record €15,000. The court warned the Larnaca trapper that a custodial sentence would be imposed if he were caught trapping again. The Cyprus bird protection law provides for a fine of up to €17,000 and/or up to 3 years imprisonment for poaching offences.
“If this fine acts as a precedent for future court action, then this will go a long way towards providing an effective deterrent for those engaged in the increasingly lucrative trapping business,” said BirdLife Cyprus Campaigns Manager Hellicar.
Since 2002, enforcement action has reduced trapping levels by about 90 per cent compared to 1990s levels – when over 10 million birds are estimated to have been killed per year in a trapping “free for all”. Enforcement suffered a setback in 2007, with a spike in trapping, and this spike was maintained in 2008.
Despite the reduction in trapping in Spring 2009, the estimated trapping toll for the season remained serious, at 245,000 birds. Recoveries of threatened species (including shrikes, flycatchers and a Wryneck) reaffirmed the indiscriminate nature of the limesticks and mist nets used by the trappers.
“Trappers will find a way to continue for as long as we don’t tackle the offending restaurants, which are the financial life-blood of this illegal activity,” Hellicar said.
