Illegal trapping at 10-year low on UK military base in Cyprus

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.

Continued

Twitter appeal leads to grim discovery of rare raptor

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week

Andrew ForgraveRural Affairs Editor

18:14, 7 MAY 2018

I’ve been in Cyprus for the last week, and one of the highlights is seeing the Montagu’s Harriers, freshly arrived from their winter quarters south of the Sahara Desert.

These long-winged, elegant raptors sweep over the grasslands hunting for large insects and small rodents.

But even the afternoons in the eastern Mediterranean can be a bit much for a top predator; I came across a female sitting beneath the shade of a tree, and she was not for moving.

Social media was used to solve a mystery for researchers at the weekend, when the satellite transmitter attached to a Montagu’s Harrier showed it has stalled around some buildings in Algeria.

James, as he was named, was given the transmitter when he was caught near his nest in south west England last July. He subsequently spent the winter in northern Mali.

An appeal for help on Twitter brought a response from ornithologists in Algeria, who travelled to the area and found James’s body with the transmitter still working.

Without being able to trigger an immediate ground search, we would probably never really have known what happened to him.

Several other tagged Monties have yet to return to Britain, being scattered between Spain and West Africa.

Continued 

Drones join war on songbird trappers at Cyprus military bases

Ben Farmer, defence correspondent 

24 MARCH 2018 • 6:00AM

Police on British military bases in Cyprus have used drones and night vision goggles to turn the tide in a campaign against illegal trappers catching and killing hundreds of thousands of songbirds.

Officers working with forces personnel estimate they have cut the number of migratory songbirds caught in trappers’ nets by as much as 70 per cent and destroyed large amounts of kit used to catch them.

The year-long crackdown on illegal bird poaching on the British sovereign bases in Cyprus has resulted in a "huge" drop in the number of poachers operating inside the bases' territory.

Small migratory birds such as blackcaps are considered a traditional delicacy by some Cypriots and sophisticated trapping feeds a multimillion-pound illicit trade.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said: “Bird trapping is not only a cruel and barbaric trade, it lines the pockets of criminal gangs to the tune of thousands of pounds.

Read on  

Bird trappers changing their methods say activists

MARCH 8TH, 2018  GEORGE PSYLLIDES CYPRUS

A new hunting law is failing to address bird trapping, conservationists said on Wednesday, as they criticised authorities for not doing enough to tackle the problem.

According to the Germany-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (Cabs) and the Foundation Pro Biodiversity (Spa) the new law seems to have marked a general decrease in trapping activity, but the general situation is not as positive as it would appear.

Reporting the findings of their autumn 2017 bird protection camp in Cyprus, the organisations said trappers have now changed their methods because of the law.

“A new hunting law is failing to address bird trapping, conservationists said on Wednesday, as they criticised authorities for not doing enough to tackle the problem.

According to the Germany-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (Cabs) and the Foundation Pro Biodiversity (Spa) the new law seems to have marked a general decrease in trapping activity, but the general situation is not as positive as it would appear.

Reporting the findings of their autumn 2017 bird protection camp in Cyprus, the organisations said trappers have now changed their methods because of the law.

“The consequence of the new law is that trappers are now shifting from mist nets to limesticks,” said Alexander Heyd, Cabs general director. “We have observed an increase in the number of poachers using limesticks. They realise that the fines for mist-netting are a deterrent, as long as the authorities enforce the law in the field, whilst those for limesticks are totally ineffective. If the goal of the law is indeed to tackle bird trapping, it is failing. Limesticks are still widespread and make huge damages to migrating birds”.

Read on

A STAGGERING 260,000 songbirds were illegally killed on a British military base last year for Europe’s sickest food ritual.

By STUART WINTER

PUBLISHED: 15:11, Tue, Mar 6, 2018 | UPDATED: 15:25, Tue, Mar 6, 2018

Delicate birds – including Britain’s national icon, the robin – were netted and had their necks wrung by poachers operating on the UK’s sovereign base in Cyprus.

Ruthless trappers cause carnage in the dense scrublands around the base by putting up nets to catch birds migrating to Africa in autumn – and then selling their plucked corpses on the black market as expensive delicacies in a trade worth millions of euros.

Conservationists revealed today how they are taking the fight to the poaching gangs, dramatically reducing their bags and also seeing them get heavy sentences in court.

Covert operations mounted by investigators from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Sovereign Base Area Police have reduced the number of songbirds slaughtered illegally by 70 per cent.

Traditional bird trapping on Cyprus was outlawed 40 years ago but has since spawned a lucrative racket with criminal gangs selling the fragile corpses for a dish known as ambelopoulia.

For birds such as blackcaps, robins, nightingales, golden orioles and masked shrikes, the demand for their flesh sees them trapped in fine nets, having their necks wrung before being plucked and fried for a dish that sells for up to £75 a plate.

As ambelopoulia is banned on Cyprus, holidaymakers to island have little idea that law-breaking tavernas are serving up the dish for locals.

Increased patrols on the Sovereign Base and efforts to deter the trappers saw their bag of 880,000 birds in 2016 decrease dramatically last year.

Continued  

Cyprus presents a bird guide for young explorers

9 Jan 2018

By Elena Markitani

BirdLife Cyprus’s latest publication ‘What’s that bird?’ is a bird guide for young explorers. Elena Markitani explains why it’s especially important in Cyprus to introduce children to the wonders of the natural world while they are young.

Every great naturalist or ornithologist was a child once. But what first opened that child’s eyes to the wonders of nature? Was it a loving parent or an inspiring teacher? Did they experience some perfect ‘lightbulb’ moment – ‘WOW! Look at that bird, the fast one diving through the sky…it’s amazing!’

This was our thinking at BirdLife Cyprus when we first embarked on the daunting task of publishing a bird guide for children. All the usual design frustrations and printing dilemmas were just the tip of the iceberg – the real challenge was being able to re-imagine things that we know so well from a child’s point of view. But how else could we hope to reach our target audience?

Read on  

British bases in Cyprus get drone to fight bird trappers

Posted on 21 September 2017 - 06:46pm

LARNACA, Cyprus: Police on a British military base in Cyprus on Thursday launched their latest weapon in the fight against illegal bird trappers – a high-tech drone.

A recent study by Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said Cypriot trappers killed 2.3 million migrating birds in autumn 2016, up from 1.4 million in 2010.

Size for size that makes Cyprus the second-most deadly bird destination in the Mediterranean, after Malta.

And most of the industrial killing takes place within British military-controlled areas, especially the eastern sovereign base of Dhekelia, outside the south coast resort of Larnaca.

After Cyprus gained independence in 1960, Britain retained sovereignty over two base areas covering some 254km² of the island's territory where it runs its own police and courts.

British authorities said the drone would mainly be used by an action team dedicated to combating illegal bird trapping due to the crystal clear imagery it can generate from great heights at a top speed of more than 80km per hour.

Read on  

British military base on Cyprus - a safe haven for wildlife criminals

Over 800,000 songbirds, such as blackcaps and robins, are estimated to have been illegally killed on a British military base in Cyprus last autumn, where illegal trapping activity remains around its highest ever levels, according to a new report.

New research by the RSPB and BirdLife Cyprus shows that the number of nets used to trap birds remains around record levels on British Territory, with an increase of 183% since the illegal-killing monitoring programme began in 2002. 

The 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 crime gangs are driving this illegal activity on a huge scale and it is estimated they earn millions of Euros every year from the songbirds they kill on British territory. 

Between August and October 2016 the small British Sovereign Base Area (SBA) police force, supported by specialist surveillance help from RSPB Investigations staff, opened more cases and confiscated more mist nets - long lines of near invisible netting - than ever previously recorded. However, the SBA Administration were largely forced to abandon their most successful tool against this criminal activity- removal of the invasive Australian acacia trees which trappers have planted on MoD land in order to lure the birds in- due to the trappers organising large protests and a dramatic blockade. Whereas the Base authorities had successfully removed 54 acres of acacia in the preceding two years, this autumn they were only able to remove a further 7 acres, leaving around 90 acres of this illegal-killing infrastructure still standing on the British firing range. 

Trappers also blatantly and extensively deploy electronic calling devices on the firing range at night in order to lure in birds to their deaths and there are concerns that parts of the British firing range are effectively becoming a no-go area for the committed but significantly outnumbered local police force. 

Martin Harper, RSPB Conservation Director, said: “This report sadly highlights that the British base is the number one bird killing hotspot on the whole island of Cyprus. “Many much loved garden bird species are being trapped and killed for huge profit by criminal gangs. The trappers’ brazen prevention of the removal of their criminal infrastructure from MoD land could never be tolerated here in the UK. The UK Government must therefore provide enforcement support to help the Base authorities respond to the trappers and safely remove the remaining 90 acres of acacia so that they cannot be used to kill hundreds of thousands more birds.” 

The report estimates that over 1.7 million birds could have been killed within the survey area, which covers both the British base and Cyprus Republic areas, and nearly 2.3 million across the whole of Cyprus due to this extensive bird trapping activity. This industrial scale activity has also been confirmed in a scientific paper, published last year, where Cyprus was identified as one of the worst places for illegal bird killing in the Mediterranean. 

Read on

UK police tackle Cyprus bird poachers

By Claire Marshall BBC Environment Correspondent


4 October 2016

The UK authorities in Cyprus are doubling the number of officers targeting illegal songbird trapping on British military territory.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of birds are killed on the bases, mostly sold for food in what has become a multi-million pound black-market trade.

The crime team is being increased from a squad of six to 11.

Conservationists welcomed the move but point out that they must patrol a base that sprawls over 100 square miles.

It's before dawn on Cape Pyla, not far from the party resort of Ayia Napa. A British police unit is scouting for signs of illegal bird poaching.

This is part of "Operation Freedom," a fresh effort by the Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) authorities here to stop the trapping and killing of songbirds on British territory.

Despite the expansion in personnel, the area they must cover is massive - a key resting place for millions of migratory birds crossing the Mediterranean.


Read on

Good news as 'more birds crossing safely' over Cyprus, avoiding trappers

CYPRUS - FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE• Monday, 11 April, 2016

Spring trapping has been showing clear signs of decrease in the past few years and more birds are crossing safely in Cyprus, Alexander Heyd, Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) General Director, has said.

Since the beginning of April, the environmental organization Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) and Pro Biodiversity Foundation (SPA) are conducting their 9th spring Bird Protection Camp in Cyprus with the code name "Safe Island", a press release issued here today by CABS says.

The goal of ‘Safe Island’ camp is to protect the migratory birds travelling through Cyprus on their long journey from Africa to Europe.

Millions of those birds, in addition to resident bird species, are falling prey each year of poachers.

The Camp aims at detecting active trapping sites with mistnets and/or limesticks and reporting them to the local authorities (Anti-Poaching Squad of the Cyprus Police and the Sovereign British Area Police) in order to combat this illegal phenomenon and ensure a safe flight for the birds.

Read on ...

Slaughter of the song birds

Songbirds are a culinary delicacy in Cyprus — but catching and eating them is illegal. Even so, the practice is on the rise and could be threatening rare species.

Shaoni Bhattacharya

26 January 2016

Mist nets are strung across flight paths to trap birds.

It wasn't until I saw the blade glinting in the sunlight that I realized how grave the situation was. Broad and belligerent in army fatigues, the man strode along the track, ranting in Greek. Behind his back, his hands flexed a knife blade in and out of its wooden handle. This man was a trapper, a poacher of birds — and he clearly didn't want company. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

My companions and I had come to this dry scrubland on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to look for evidence of songbird trapping. The birds are caught illegally and eaten in a traditional dish called ambelopoulia — and I was joining a September trip to monitor the extent of trapping. With me was Roger Little, a British conservation volunteer, and Savvas, a field officer with the conservation group BirdLife Cyprus whose name has been changed to protect his identity. We didn't expect to encounter trappers at this spot in the southeastern region of Cape Pyla; they usually work at night, when the birds are active. But now it seemed that they had started patrolling the site during the day. “You are on my land,” the trapper said to us in Greek.

“If this is your property, then I apologize — we didn't know, we are going,” Savvas said. We acted casual as the man escorted us back to the battered four-by-four in which we had come. “I shouldn't really be letting you go,” he muttered. Moments later, we were driving away.

Bird trapping in Cyprus has grown into a controversy that encompasses crime, culture, politics and science. The practice was made illegal more than 40 years ago — but that simply forced it underground. Today, trappers routinely cut wide corridors through vegetation and string fine 'mist nets' from poles to catch the birds, which are sent to local restaurants and quietly served. A platter of a dozen birds sells for €40–80 (US$44–87), and the trade in songbirds is responsible for an estimated annual market of €15 million. The delicacy is so prized and lucrative that it is suspected to be linked to organized crime, and those trying to stop it have been subject to intimidation and violence.

Read on …

The ‘big business’ of bird trapping in Cyprus

DECEMBER 1ST, 2015 

 

By George Psyllides

A bird protection campaign in Cyprus has seen 36 bird trappers arrested and a large number or poaching equipment destroyed, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) announced on Tuesday.

According to a news release, more than 3,314 illegal limesticks and 155 nets were destroyed during a bird protection camp conducted by CABS in cooperation with the SPA (Foundation for Biodiversity) on Cyprus this autumn.

Dubbed Operation Safe Passage, the camp covered five weeks from September to October 2015 and involved more than 30 conservationists and bird experts from six EU-countries.

CABS said its teams found and reported 162 illegal bird trapping sites equipped with 3,314 limesticks and 155 nets spanning more than 3.1 kilometres to the authorities.

According to CABS a total of 64 illegal electronic bird lures have also been discovered by the activists and later confiscated by the police.

Hotspots of illegal trapping activity this autumn were Ayios Nicolaos and Cape Pyla inside the Eastern Sovereign Base Area (Dhekelia British military base) and Avgorou and Liopetri in the Republic.

Volunteers found 855 trapped birds from 26 different species.

“All could be released after some days of intensive cleaning and rehabilitation in the CABS office.”

Read on …

Extremely Rare Black Flamingo Spotted At Limassol Salt Lake In Cyprus

VICTOR JOHNSON on April 8, 2015 at 6:00 pm 

An extremely rare black flamingo, which very few people have ever laid eyes on, has been spotted at Limassol Salt Lake on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, the British bases indicated in a statement. The statement indicated that experts believe the bird to suffer “from a highly rare condition known as ‘melanism,’ a genetic irregularity” which causes the rare bird to generate more melanin than normal, subsequently “turning them a dark brown, or black,” Cyprus Mail reported. 

Limassol Salt Lake, also known as Akrotiri Salt Lake, where the sighting took place lies southwest of the coastal city of Lemesos, also known as Limassol. The lake is considered to be amongst the most important wetlands in the eastern Mediterranean and it also marks the largest inland body of water on the island of Cyprus.

Read more at:

Nearly 1m birds were killed on British military base in Cyprus, says RSPB

Poachers took 15,000 birds every day for two months last autumn on Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area as conservationists warn killing is at unprecedented levels

Karl Mathiesen

Monday 9 March 2015 06.01 GMTLast modified on Monday 9 March 201507.57 GMT

Almost a million birds were illegally killed in just two months on a British military base in Cyprus last year, according to the RSPB.

Dr Tim Stowe, the RSPB’s international director, called on the Ministry of Defence(MoD) to do more to stop local poachers, who reportedly took 15,000 birds every day during September and October from British Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area (SBA).

“The report highlights the illegal trapping of songbirds on the British military base has escalated and we are urging the Ministry of Defence and the Base Area authorities to resolve it before this autumn’s migration,” said Stowe.

But the MoD rejected the RSPB’s findings and questioned the methodology of the survey.

“We do not accept the report’s unverified claims about loss of bird life during this period, which was based upon data collected from a very short period,” said an MoD spokeswoman.

Continued ...

Mass bird trapping seizures

Published on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:44:42 GMT

The SBA Police in the ESBA launched a string of raids in Pyla over the past week which dealt a devastating blow to the illegal bird trapping community. 

During three early morning operations carried out on November 6, 7 and 10, the dedicated action team swooped on various locations and seized a huge amount of poaching-related items.

In total, 57 mistnets were seized, alongside eight CD players, 28 loud speakers, 725 metres of cable, 17 car batteries, 196 iron poles, 90 concrete bases, 500 metres of carpet, 13 lime sticks and 30 concrete bases, which were destroyed on site. 

Police officers on the scene also managed to release 184 wild birds, the majority of which were Thrushes, before they were killed and sold on the black market. 

Speaking on Monday after the third raid in five days, Chief Inspector Mustafa Kemal said the seizures would have been felt by the bird trapping community.

He said: “As we have been doing throughout the migrating bird season, we have sent out another strong message to the bird trapping community that this will not be tolerated within the SBAs. 

“Bird trapping is a highly-illegal activity and we will not let up in our pursuit to punish those participating in it.”

- See more at:

WEYMOUTH: Songbird numbers decline at Weymouth’s nature reserves

by Harry Walton

FOREIGN hunters have decimated songbird numbers at Weymouth’s Radipole and Lodmoor nature reserves.

RSPB staff say that tens of thousands of birds are being illegally trapped or shot on migration route points such as Cyprus and Malta where famous wildlife presenter Chris Packham was recently arrested while highlighting the problem.

The huge impact hunting has on cuckoos, turtle doves, warblers and other migratory birds is having a devastating impact on numbers reaching Weymouth.

Radipole RSPB spokesman Luke Phillips said: “Cuckoos have been wiped out here whereas before we always had several on the reserves while turtle doves, which used to be regular migrants here, are now extremely rare birds.

“Hunting is a major factor in this but not the only cause. Others include loss of habitat which is another key factor.”

He added that the dramatic fall in migrant birds was a serious concern for Weymouth and also for Portland Bird Observatory which keeps detailed records of migratory birds.

PBO figures show that the number of turtle doves they record has crashed from nearly 900 in 1976 to barely a dozen in 2011.

Continued