AN
encouraging note has today (November 8) been sounded on the ongoing campaign to halt the illegal
songbird-trapping that has, for many years, been rife in parts of Southern Europe.
Thanks
to volunteers who have been seizing trapping equipment and supplying evidence
to the police, it appears to have been
much reduced during the 2017 autumn migration season.
Monitoring
will resume shortly, but, during a brief lull, Alexander Heyd, the managing
director of the Bonn-based Committee against Bird Slaughter, has expressed his
thanks to all activists and supporters.
His
report on the autumn migration season is printed below.
As of last weekend, with the completion of our operations in
Cyprus
and the northern Italian Alps of Brescia, all our autumn bird protection camps
across the Mediterranean region have now ended.
Cyprus: almost 3,500 traps and nets collected!
Since the end of August, more than 30 nature and animal friends from Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland, Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Cyprus and the USA have been working on the Mediterranean island. In nine weeks, they found 3,353 limesticks, 143 nets, 96 electronic decoys and dismantled them together with the police and the Game Fund. A total of 20 poachers were prosecuted based on our findings. Some 420 birds were liberated from the illegal traps. The bird migration is over now and the poaching should now stop for a short time. We will launch our next operation on Cyprus when the winter trapping season begins in just a few weeks.
Brescia: 48 poachers convicted!
As the winter creeps in and the frosts begin to bite, we have also ended our five-week mission in the Alpine mountains between Lake Garda and Lake Iseo. Over the course of the operation, approximately 50 participants have found 73 active trapping sites. containing a total of 96 bow traps, 630 snap traps, 41 mist nets,15 small nets and seven cage traps. The police have convicted 48 poachers based on our findings. In premises searches conducted by the authorities, another 62 trapping nets and around 450 frozen songbirds were seized. More than 800 live finches, thrushes, tits and robins were handed over to CABS for release. These high figures may be somewhat misleading, bird poaching in Brescia is declining - we’ve never had so few active trapping sites!
Spain: Losing the limesticks!
Our campaign against bird trapping in eastern Spain has also been successful: During our 10-day mission in Valencia and Castellon, we found only six active trapping installations (the so-called "parany") with limesticks. Two poachers were convicted by the Guardia Civil. Only five years ago we found hundreds of these large trapping sites of this kind - it seems our actions have resulted in the poaching being almost brought to a halt in no time!
Malta: 6,000 trapping licences approved.
Despite a pending lawsuit in the European Court of Justice, songbird trapping on Malta is now in full swing. To secure the votes of trappers for the next election, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has authorised the approval of an incredible 6,000 licences to trap finches, thrushes and plovers. CABS teams are in place and ready to document the mass-catch for the European Commission. In the last two weeks alone, a total of 140 sites have been reported to the WBRU (Wild Bird Regulation Unit) which will examine each case individually.
Thanks for your help!
Our autumn missions - from the action in Northern Italy against the trapping of flycatchers (August), through our first operation in Lebanon (September) and the birds of prey campaigns in Messina and Malta (both in September) to the completion of the major bird protection camps in Cyprus and Brescia - have cost about 70,000 euros. Without your donations we would not have been able to achieve these results and carry out these missions to this extent. Our successes across all these poaching hotspots are therefore our combined success!
Thank you for the great support.
Cyprus: almost 3,500 traps and nets collected!
Since the end of August, more than 30 nature and animal friends from Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland, Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Cyprus and the USA have been working on the Mediterranean island. In nine weeks, they found 3,353 limesticks, 143 nets, 96 electronic decoys and dismantled them together with the police and the Game Fund. A total of 20 poachers were prosecuted based on our findings. Some 420 birds were liberated from the illegal traps. The bird migration is over now and the poaching should now stop for a short time. We will launch our next operation on Cyprus when the winter trapping season begins in just a few weeks.
Brescia: 48 poachers convicted!
As the winter creeps in and the frosts begin to bite, we have also ended our five-week mission in the Alpine mountains between Lake Garda and Lake Iseo. Over the course of the operation, approximately 50 participants have found 73 active trapping sites. containing a total of 96 bow traps, 630 snap traps, 41 mist nets,15 small nets and seven cage traps. The police have convicted 48 poachers based on our findings. In premises searches conducted by the authorities, another 62 trapping nets and around 450 frozen songbirds were seized. More than 800 live finches, thrushes, tits and robins were handed over to CABS for release. These high figures may be somewhat misleading, bird poaching in Brescia is declining - we’ve never had so few active trapping sites!
Spain: Losing the limesticks!
Our campaign against bird trapping in eastern Spain has also been successful: During our 10-day mission in Valencia and Castellon, we found only six active trapping installations (the so-called "parany") with limesticks. Two poachers were convicted by the Guardia Civil. Only five years ago we found hundreds of these large trapping sites of this kind - it seems our actions have resulted in the poaching being almost brought to a halt in no time!
Malta: 6,000 trapping licences approved.
Despite a pending lawsuit in the European Court of Justice, songbird trapping on Malta is now in full swing. To secure the votes of trappers for the next election, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has authorised the approval of an incredible 6,000 licences to trap finches, thrushes and plovers. CABS teams are in place and ready to document the mass-catch for the European Commission. In the last two weeks alone, a total of 140 sites have been reported to the WBRU (Wild Bird Regulation Unit) which will examine each case individually.
Thanks for your help!
Our autumn missions - from the action in Northern Italy against the trapping of flycatchers (August), through our first operation in Lebanon (September) and the birds of prey campaigns in Messina and Malta (both in September) to the completion of the major bird protection camps in Cyprus and Brescia - have cost about 70,000 euros. Without your donations we would not have been able to achieve these results and carry out these missions to this extent. Our successes across all these poaching hotspots are therefore our combined success!
Thank you for the great support.
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