BirdLife Cyprus said the latest findings from its under-cover monitoring of the illegal cull showed a worrying upturn in trapping with mist nets and limesticks. “Autumn 2008 saw the highest level of mist netting we have detected in the field for five years and use of limesticks also seems to be on the rise,” said a spokesman for the organisation. “We are loosing ground and the missing enforcement link is concerted action against the restaurants flouting the ban on ambelopoulia.”
Though increased enforcement against trappers in the field has reduced the activity by about 80 per cent compared to the 1990s – when around 10 million birds were taken every year, restaurants still fuel a demand for ambelopoulia and over a million birds a year are estimated to still fall foul to the trappers, who are also active during winter and spring.
In a coordinated early December sting, officers from the Cyprus Game Fund and Police raided eight restaurants in the Larnaca district, confiscating 883 blackcaps and song thrushes from freezers and charging four proprietors with wildlife offenses. “This was a welcome action, but only scraped the surface,” said BirdLife Cyprus.
Politicians remain wary of backing a concerted campaign against offending restaurants, with the result that the considerable financial incentives for trapping remain (a single blackcap sells for around €4). “Ambelopoulia are still widely available in local tavernas,” said the spokesman. “Food and eating seem to be considered sacrosanct and untouchable in Cyprus, but this particular eating habit is illegal and carries a serious conservation cost for Europe’s migrant birds.”
Trappers, who work mostly in the SE of the Island, are after fat-rich blackcaps and other migrants staging in Cyprus on their long journeys from Europe to Africa. These are eaten whole as traditional pickled or boiled delicacies. The indiscriminate nature of the illegal trapping methods means over 100 species, many of them threatened, are snared in invisible nets and on glue sticks. Among these are owls, bee-eaters, wheatears, shrikes, pipits, nightingales and robins.
A public opinion poll commissioned by BirdLife in August 2008 showed increased popularity of trapping (especially with limesticks) and ambelopoulia-eating, even if the majority of Cypriots declared opposition to trapping, especially for commercial purposes (supplying restaurants).
Monitoring of illegal bird trapping activities in Cyprus by BirdLife Cyprus - assisted by the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) – has been ongoing since 2002. Data is gathered systematically in the field by a trained survey team and all evidence of trapping relayed to the relevant enforcement authorities. Autumn 2008 survey evidence showed that the upturn in trapping detected in 2007 was maintained during 2008, with autumn 2008 showing the highest mist netting levels in any season for five years.
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