ILLEGAL BIRD TRAPPING: THE FIGHT GOES ON

All smiles after these songbirds were saved and released on Cyprus - other birds were not so lucky


SIGNIFICANT progress has been made in the campaign to halt illegal bird-trapping in Southern Europe. Here the chief executive of the Campaign Against Bird Slaughter, Alexander Heyd, provides an autumn update.

Spain - end of bird trapping in sight
At the end of October and in early November, a CABS team conducted a 10-day mission in Eastern Spain. Around Valencia, 7 poachers were convicted by the police as a direct result of our field investigations. A total of 4 huge slack nets, 14 mist nets, 400 limesticks and a handful of small live traps were secured. All used to target wintering thrushes. The number of active traps continues to decline significantly. Just a few years ago we would typically record 1,500 trapping sites, this year we recorded about 50. We secretly hoped it could be even less! So, in the next few years we will have to do some Spanish missions to catch the very last trapper!

Cyprus - lack of support from authorities
Our Bird Protection Camp in Cyprus was the longest campaign of the season and continued  until November 11. During this time, we  found 2,207 limesticks and 39 nets and, together with wardens from the Game Fund convicted 12 poachers. The Cypriot police have completely ceased their support for our actions, and there was little else to expect from the hunt-friendly government. In the area of military bases, the British police, however, are quite cooperative. Although the figures so far indicate a slight decrease in bird trapping, we are often unable to control all the trapping sites due to the lack of police support and probably will not find and secure as many trapping sites as we used to. The situation in Cyprus is definitely precarious for bird protection in Europe!

Malta - Increase in illegal bird catching
In mid-October our third (Malta) autumn camp started on Malta and Gozo. While August/September we focused on the illegal trapping of wading birds and mid/late September we monitored bird of prey poaching, our teams are currently working on the fight against the illegal finch trapping. After the European Court of Justice finally banned finch trapping back in June, the old-fashioned traditionalists in Malta are now illegally trapping species such as linnets, chaffinches, siskins and serins. There are far more illegal sites than we had feared: In just the last two weeks alone we have reported more than 50 active sites with huge clap nets to the police, at least 18 people were convicted and over 100 live birds seized - which were being used as caged decoys to lure others of their kind into the trappers nets. 

Brescia - 46 poachers caught
During the four-week operation in Brescia (Sept. 27 to Oct. 28), we oversaw the arrest of 46 poachers, 392 bow traps (123 in house searches), 109 nets (including 46 in house searches) and 279 snap traps were seized. In addition, 11 shotguns, around 170 live decoys and about 2,100 frozen songbirds were also confiscated. A total of 52 CABS members from Italy, Spain, Germany, Great Britain and the USA were deployed in the northern Italian province. As in previous years, the significant decline in poaching continues. While the use of bow and snap traps are clearly on the decline, nets remain a clear problem.

Grim plight for this pied flycatcher

In many places, especially in Cyprus, Sardinia and Malta, the bird trappers continue to target migrant birds and/or hunt for wintering songbirds. Therefore, we will continue our anti-poaching operations in the coming weeks. However, in many parts of Italy and Spain, bird poaching is now coming to an end for seasonal reasons.

Photographs: Courtesy of Campaign against Bird Slaughter