Brutal bird slaughter in Cyprus

THE Cypriots are being crucified for their economic sins.

Conservationists don’t feel too sorry for them. Millions of migratory birds, including rare and endangered ones, are slaughtered each year on the island.

Perhaps we shouldn’t point the finger: the country has a lot on its plate and it’s ‘bad form to kick a chap when he’s down’. However, a report on last year’s bird massacres makes depressing reading. There are suggestions the financial woes are adding to the problem.

To be fair, Cyprus isn’t the only offending Mediterranean island. Malta is also in the dock. On Mar 1, conservationists staged a demonstration in front of the law courts in Valetta, calling for protection measures to be enforced and offenders prosecuted.

BirdLife Malta recorded nearly 2,000 illegal hunting incidents last year, including 220 cases where protected species were shot at. Finches were trapped illegally in 95% of Natura 2000 protected sites, the organisation says.

Huge numbers of birds from mainland Europe use Malta and Cyprus as wayside inns on their journeys to, and from, Africa. Catching them is a tradition that goes back, at least, to the Middle Ages.

Storks and birds of prey are shot. Small birds are captured using a sticky substance smeared on branches. Birds’ feet have strong gripping muscles to help them perch. Their releasing muscles are weak and bird-lime holds them fast. Captive birds, calling from cages, are used as lures.

In recent years, an even more efficient trapping device has been deployed. American ornithologists, conscripted into the army, saw mist-nets being used to catch birds for food in Japan. Nets were taken to America and Europe to be used by bird-ringers. They are lethal in untrained hands. The bird slaughter was a stumbling block when Cyprus applied to join the EU, so the country started to put its house in order. Hunting restrictions were introduced in 1974 and the use of bird-lime, mist-nets and cage traps became illegal. A list of protected species, which included the country’s two endemics, the Cyprus wheatear and the Cyprus warbler, was drawn up.

In 1988, the country ratified the Bern Convention, which covers the protection of flora and fauna. There were improvements in law enforcement prior to, and immediately following, accession in 2004. Cyprus was Ireland’s immediate predecessor as European president.

Tassos Shialis is ‘illegal bird-killing campaigns’ officer for BirdLife Cyprus. His report, ‘Update on Illegal Bird Trapping Activity in Cyprus’, says there has been a dramatic increase in killing over the last few years, and particularly since 2007. Illegal hunting during 2012 was ‘at record levels’, since systematic monitoring began 11 years ago.

Around 2.5m birds were killed. Nearly 17km of mist-net rides were active last autumn, an 11% increase on the previous year; 152 species were trapped using mist-nets or bird-lime, 78 of them listed as threatened under the EU Birds Directive and/or Birdlife International. Blackcap is the main target species.

‘Ambelopoulia’, a traditional dish of grilled or boiled songbirds, is ‘the single most important economic driver of this activity’, the report says. The dish is openly advertised in some restaurants. The bird slaughter is worth millions to organised crime.

Public opinion in Cyprus is ambivalent. We harvest mackerel and herring off our shores, so why, Cypriots might ask, should birds visiting Cyprus be treated differently? Is opposition to eating songbirds a form of cultural imperialism on the part of northern Europeans? Birds, however, are not just killed for food. Rare raptors, which other countries have spent large sums of money conserving, are shot indiscriminately, just for fun.

Most Cypriots say they are opposed to bird-trapping, but there is still widespread support for the practice. Some members of parliament want catching to be legalised and two of the three main candidates in the presidential election, last February, said that they would support measures to decriminalise the practice.

As Cyprus pulls up its financial socks to meet EU requirements, it might honour its environmental obligations, as well.