Court protects ‘British’ Curlews from French hunting plan

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Cymru reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week, and lists seven upcoming wildlife events

Andrew ForgraveRural Affairs Editor

23:50, 2 SEP 2019

Fans of one of Wales’ fastest declining birds are celebrating after the Conseil d’Etat ruled that no Curlews can be hunted in France this winter.

A few weeks earlier, the French government had ignored its own advisers and announced that 6,000 of the wading birds could be shot this season.

Conservationists in the UK were outraged, since many Curlews that winter on the French coast breed on moorlands in Britain and Ireland .

The Welsh Ornithological Society and RSPB were among organisations that wrote to the French environment minister calling for a previous moratorium on hunting Curlews to be renewed.

Meanwhile, BirdLife International has called on the French government to cancel a hunt of 18,000 Turtle Doves this autumn.

Britain’s Turtle Dove population has fallen by 95% in the last 30 years, and the European Commission has started proceedings against France for failing to protect the birds.

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Russian hunting ban to benefit endangered geese

28/02/2019

The Government of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia has announced that it has banned spring hunting in 2019, with the move set to benefit several threatened waterbird species, notably Red-breasted Goose, which is listed as Vulnerable by BirdLife International.

In October 2018 the LIFE for Safe Flight project partners in Russia initiated a high-level meeting in Kalmykia to discuss spring hunting and options to reduce its impact on migratory waterbirds. Experts and state officials agreed on the need to explore the possibility of closure of spring hunting, and the local government then made the necessary steps towards this decision. The governmental ordinance for spring hunting to be banned was announced earlier this month.

Harvesting adult birds prior to the breeding season is widely considered highly damaging by conservationists since it reduces the number of breeding individuals. Recent data assessments estimated that as much as 40 per cent of the global population of Red-breasted Goose might end up victims of poaching and illegal killing during spring and autumn migration through Kazkahstan and Russia. One of the main objectives of the current LIFE project is to mitigate these threats, one such being the limiting or adapting of spring hunting in key areas along the species' migration route.

The ceasing of goose hunting in spring in Kalmykia will, in conjunction with the ban on spring waterfowl hunting in Kazakhstan since 2017, allow safe passage for Red-breasted Geese as they leave their Black Sea wintering grounds; many other threatened waterbirds including Lesser White-fronted Goose (also listed as Vulnerable) will benefit, too. Kalmykia and Northern Kazakhstan are key bottleneck areas during the migrations of both species and this will ensure better survival for birds heading to their breeding grounds. As this summer is also expected to be good for lemmings (ensuring a better breeding season for waterbirds in the Arctic due to fewer predation pressures), it is hoped that an increase in the population will be noticeable among Arctic-breeding waterbirds by next winter.

Find out more about what the LIFE for Safe Flight project is doing to save Red-breasted Goose at savebranta.org.

Source

Pakistan Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Hunting Rare Bird

JAN 22, 2016 09:17 AM ET // BY AFP

Pakistan’s Supreme Court Friday overturned its decision to ban the hunting of the houbara bustard, a rare desert bird whose meat is prized among Arab sheikhs as an aphrodisiac.

News that the monarch butterfly has nearly vanished from the planet means it may be be deemed an endangered species. What does that mean?

Wealthy hunting parties from the Gulf travel to Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province every winter to kill the houbara bustard using hunting falcons.

The issue has also cast a spotlight on traditionally close ties between Pakistan and its allies in the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia.

A provincial High Court in Balochistan in November 2014 cancelled all permits for hunting in the province, but the federal government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — a close ally of Saudi Arabia — continued to issue licenses.

Last year the Supreme Court banned hunting of the bird entirely, in a decision welcomed by wildlife campaigners.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature includes the bird on its “red list” of threatened species, estimating there are fewer than 97,000 left globally.

But the federal and provincial governments asked the court to review the decision, claiming that controlled hunting was a tool for preservation and should be allowed.

In a judgement issued Friday, the court said it had set aside its original decision to ban hunting of the bird and that petitions on the issue would be listed for fresh hearings.

Read on ...

Pakistan enforces hunting ban on Houbara bustard

Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered a total ban on the hunting of the Houbara bustard, an endangered migratory bird prized by hunters from the Gulf states.

The court has asked the government to enforce international conventions on conservation which Pakistan has signed.

The Houbara bustard, about the size of a chicken, once flourished on the Arabian peninsula but has been hunted almost to extinction.

Many in the Middle East believe the bird's meat is an aphrodisiac.

The International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates the global population of Houbara bustards at between 50,000 and 100,000 and includes it on its red list of threatened species.

The BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that although hunting the birds has been banned in Pakistan, the government has routinely made exceptions for Middle Eastern dignitaries on grounds of diplomatic expediency and because they bring "investment in the social sector" like hospitals and schools.

In 2014, a Saudi royal hunting party killed more than 2,000 Houbara bustards in a 21-day safari in Chagai, Balochistan, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported.

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