Discussion of a government bill introducing harsher penalties for poaching was concluded on Wednesday at the House legal affairs committee, with the bill scheduled to be put to a vote in Friday’s plenum.
The controversial bill, which ostensibly aims to tackle poaching, particularly of songbirds – a popular delicacy in Cyprus – introduces different fines according to the method used to capture the birds.
Committee chairman Adamos Adamou said that the bill, which introduces on-the-spot fines, as opposed to court summons, will tackle poaching while improving Cyprus’ image with regard to trapping protected bird species.
One contentious clause in the bill, introduced by Solidarity’s Michalis Yiorgallas, calls for a €200 fine for poachers found to be using up to 72 lime-sticks to catch songbirds, with €10 slapped on for each additional lime-stick found.
Yiorgallas defended his proposal with the argument that, if the fine for poaching with lime-sticks were the same as poaching with mist-nets, which trap a much larger number of birds, “the poacher’s choice would always be mist-nets”.
But, he explained, the €200 fine will have additional fines slapped on, depending on the number of birds trapped, as well as others, creating a much larger fine.
Responding to another criticism, this one by Game Fund officers who argued that issuing on-the-spot fines to poachers would put them at risk of bodily harm – poachers are notoriously aggressive towards efforts to curb songbird hunting – Yiorgallas said the officers would simply report incidents to the police, which would then issue the fine.
Very serious cases, he noted, would land poachers in court for a jail term.
Adamou said the harsh penalties in the bill will tackle poaching, while addressing the European Commission’s concerns.
“If the commission finds that the lime-stick fine is too low, we can always increase it,” he said.
He pointed out that, since all penalties in the bill were some form of an on-the-spot fine, the bill became more effective due to the direct link of the penalty to the offence.
“Under the current law, a poacher is taken to court for a €300 fine, five years after the fact,” Adamou said.
The Disy MP, a former chairman of the hunters’ association, deemed Wednesday a “great day for hunters in Cyprus and all those who love the environment”.
“The bill will tackle poaching with out-of-court penalties, implementable on the spot,” he added.
He explained that the new bill distinguishes between traditional hunting methods that do not involve mass trapping and selective hunting, and said the penalties are such that poaching will be discouraged.
