Dear Friends and Supporters,

With the first day of autumn upon us, we have now completed our ‘Operation Safe-Haven’ in Lebanon and our Bird Protection Camps in Malta and Cyprus are entering their second half - therefore we wanted to send you a brief update:

Lebanon

The CABS expedition to Lebanon has deeply shocked all our participants. It was extremely evident that in a country where bird protection is still in its infancy, we are taking our very first steps. Although we knew it would be shocking, we did not expect to witness such large massacres of honey buzzards, widespread illegal trapping of song birds, the commercial sale of songbirds as ‘frozen food’ in the supermarkets and the sheer lack of action from the police. On the other side of the coin, we were positively surprised by the support and hospitality by our new partners – the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) and BioLand.

Our first conclusion: migratory bird hunting and trapping in the Lebanon is far more dramatic and intense than in any other area of CABS operations around the Mediterranean. For species such as honey buzzards and short-toed eagles, poaching in Lebanon poses a highly significant problem. With our new partners, however, a change is possible - in Lebanon there is real conservation movement building momentum, wanting to promote wild-bird and environmental protection.

We will draw up a comprehensive strategy for the years ahead and will carry out regular bird protection camps in Lebanon from 2018 onwards. Migratory bird poaching in the Middle East is probably the most difficult challenge we face in bird protection and will continue to occupy us for a long time coming.

We have published two videos on our mission here:
http://www.komitee.de/en/actions-and-projects/species-protection/hunting-lebanon/honey-buzzard-massacre

Furthermore, with our first Arabic press release our findings were picked up by Lebanese media - a good start for our work and a strong message. Here is a link to a TV contribution (from minute 35:45):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVbJgkALvdk&feature=youtu.be

Malta

In Malta, we reap the fruits of 17 years of hard work: Each day, our teams guarding the flyways and roosting places across the small island, have recorded ‘almost’ no more criminal offences. However, we did observe several possible shots at honey buzzards and marsh harriers, especially around the large roosting area of Buskett-Gardens. Thankfully, the birds were not hurt. Even the late summer bird trapping has also noticeably declined - since the beginning of September we have only found 2 active trapping sites for waders. These were, however, huge installations and could be stopped promptly with the help of the environmental police ALE.

But there is still a lot to be done, especially in the spring and autumn. If you’ve not yet seen the beautiful ARTE-report from 13.9. you can check it out here (in German language):
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/073398-006-A/re-jagd-auf-vogeljaeger/

Cyprus

Even in Cyprus, we are witnessing a positive development this autumn: by an amendment to local legislation, there are higher penalties, which seems to have many of the poachers hot under the collar! In the last few weeks, we have helped secure fines ranging from €2,500 to €11,000 against poachers reported to the police. This is ten times what has been imposed previously. As a result, significantly fewer trapping sites are active. During the first three weeks of our Bird Protection Camp in Cyprus, which we do, as always, together with the German Pro-Biodiversity Foundation (SPA), we have only been able to find 840 limesticks and 37 nets. 11 poachers have been convicted by the police. The SBA police in the British military areas is also very active this year and is doing a good job.

In a serious incident, a CABS team was shot at in Cyprus last weekend and the perpetrator was caught. You can read a press article on this story here:
http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/09/15/famagusta-protest-bird-trapping-activists/
 
Best wishes from Bonn

Alexander Heyd

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Alexander Heyd
(Managing Director / Managing Director)

Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)
Federal office
An der Ziegelei 8, 53127 Bonn, Germany

Tel .: +49 228 66 55 21
Fax: +49 228 66 52 80
Email: komitee@komitee.de

Internet: www.komitee.de
Facebook (english): www.facebook.com/CABS2011