An estimated 726,000 migrating songbirds had been illegally trapped and killed on the island of Cyprus final autumn, a brand new report from BirdLife Cyprus has revealed.
Species together with Blackcaps, Redstarts, Whitethroats and Willow Warblers had been discovered to have been caught utilizing mist nets and limesticks inside the survey space, which incorporates land round British navy bases.
Cyprus is a crucial a part of the migration route for a lot of birds as they transfer between their breeding grounds in Europe to their over-wintering grounds in Africa. Felony gangs use digital units that imitate the calls of migratory birds to lure them into the trapping websites. The lifeless birds are then offered on the black market to eating places within the Republic of Cyprus to be used within the native and costly dish ‘ambelopoulia’, or for dwelling consumption. The Cyprus Recreation and Fauna Service has estimated this unlawful enterprise is value within the area of 10 million Euros per 12 months.
Though the general stage of trapping with mist nets in 2025 was simply 4% greater than the earlier autumn, there have been huge variations of their use between survey areas. The report’s findings present a direct hyperlink between the extent of enforcement motion by authorities and the quantity of trapping happening.
Within the Japanese Sovereign Base Areas, trapping with mist nets elevated by 55% in comparison with 2024. This rise adopted a change in enforcement techniques by the Sovereign Base Areas Police, who shifted from proactive night time patrols all through the trapping season to a extra reactive method primarily based on focused ambushes. The diminished seen presence within the area seems to have been rapidly exploited. Most concerningly, trapping exercise was recorded once more at Cape Pyla, a infamous hotspot the place no trapping had been documented since 2019.
In sharp distinction, trapping with mist nets within the Republic of Cyprus fell by 47%. BirdLife Cyprus believes the decline was partially as a result of focused enforcement motion towards three main organised trapping websites within the Larnaca district. After British naturalist Chris Packham working with the Committee In opposition to Chook Slaughter (CABS) introduced worldwide consideration to large-scale trapping on the island, Cyprus Police carried out eight co-ordinated raids, issuing fines exceeding €157,000. In a single case, practically 1,000 lifeless birds had been found packaged and prepared on the market. Medication and weapons had been additionally seized, exposing the clear hyperlinks between unlawful chook trapping and organised crime.
BirdLife Cyprus’ Campaigns Coordinator, Tassos Shialis, stated: “Our findings for autumn 2025 ship a really clear message. Constant, seen and focused enforcement works. When that deterrent presence weakens, unlawful trapping rebounds. Furthermore, the current arson assaults on automobiles of the Recreation and Fauna Service are a transparent indication that unlawful chook trapping and poaching have changed into a profitable enterprise, and the regulation breakers won’t hesitate to hold out assaults towards recreation wardens and law enforcement officials.”
Jake Zarins, Head of UK Abroad Territories programmes on the RSPB, stated: “The continuing monitoring of unlawful chook trapping carried out by BirdLife Cyprus clearly illustrates the best methods of stopping such criminality is thru persistent and visual deterrents. The efforts of the Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) police power over a few years have helped drastically scale back the incidence of chook trapping inside the SBA’s and the RSPB, while admire of this work, is eager to make sure that policing of those unlawful actions stays a precedence alongside different rising calls for for policing sources.”
To seek out out extra about how the RSPB is working with BirdLife Cyprus and each the British and Cypriot governments to guard songbirds on the island please go to: https://birdlifecyprus.org/combating-bird-crime/
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