The situation with regards to environmental conservation is deplorable

With regards to your article ‘Open wetlands for waterfowl hunting, say hunters’, (Sunday Mail June 13) it seems that neither the HWP nor the Game and Wildlife Service are aware that Cyprus is a contracting party to AEWA since 2008.

AWEA is the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement for the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds. http://www.unep-aewa.org/about/introduction.htm The idea is Waterbird conservation.

The action plan is clear and it includes amongst others:

* Promotion of eco-tourism

* Creation and expansion of protected wetlands

* Creation of disturbance-free zones in protected areas.

* Conservation and monitoring of risk species

* Hunting on a sustainable use basis – only where hunting of such populations is a long-established cultural practice.

* Phasing out of lead shot. In Cyprus Duck / Goose / waterfowl hunting has never been a long established cultural practice, unlike wild hare or partridge. Lead shot poisoning in the salt lake was responsible for the death of a large number of Flamingos a few years back – http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/flamingo-inquiry-finds-massive-lead-concentration-salt-lake

As a hunter – when in South Africa – I find the situation with regards to environmental conservation and protection in Cyprus deplorable. The actions of AEWA are one of the reasons the populations of waterbirds have bounced back. Would our answer to all the efforts of AEWA be – “let’s shoot everything now that the flocks are healthy again, since we have killed everything else? ” Hint…it defeats the purpose of conservation. I and many, many other citizens of this country do not want to see the very few species that we have left on the island wiped out in the tiny space we have as protected wetlands by a self-interest minority. I would appreciate a bit more investigative journalism from the CM rather than printing English translations of press releases- in this case the local hunters association. Costas Solomou, Nicosia

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.