18/03/2019
An
estimated 121,000 songbirds, such as Blackcaps and European
Robins, are estimated to have been illegally killed on a British military
base in Cyprus during autumn 2018, according to a new report by BirdLife Cyprus
and the RSPB.
While
this figure is still extremely high, it represents a 10-year low and
is well down from 260,000 in 2017 and 880,000 in 2016.
The
success in the reduction of illegal trapping on the base is believed to be
primarily due to the impact of covert surveillance work undertaken by the RSPB
and BirdLife Cyprus with the Sovereign Base Area (SBA) Administration. Since
the work started in 2016, some 21 trappers have been caught on camera and prosecuted,
with courts imposing three-year suspended jail sentences and fines as high as €
6,000. More individuals caught in 2018 are due to appear in court later this
year. The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has also continued to provide
crucial support in identifying trapping sites as highlighted by TV Presenter
and campaigner Chris Packham during the last three autumns.
Along
with increased enforcement and heavier sentences, the SBA authorities are also
using a range of civil and criminal sanctions against the trappers, meaning
they now face a double deterrent.
Songbirds
are illegally trapped and killed to provide restaurants with the main
ingredient for the local and expensive delicacy of ambelopoulia – a plate of
cooked songbirds. Organised criminal gangs are driving this illegal activity on
a huge scale and it is estimated they earn hundreds of thousands of euros every
year from the songbirds they kill on British territory.
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