Feature: 2 mln birds illegally killed in Cyprus in 2015: wild life organizations

Wild life organizations claimed on Tuesday that illegal trapping in Cyprus resulted in the killing of over 2 million songbirds last year.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and BirdLife Cyprus said in a statement that trappers used mist nets 19 km long to trap the birds.

Authorities in 2015 confiscated 5,300 lime-sticks spread in trees and vineyards on which birds feed. The sticks are covered with a sticky substance made of a local inedible fruit and honey on which birds stick when they touch them.

The wild life organizations said their data was based on surveys carried out by teams which covered the south and eastern coasts of Cyprus during autumn last year.

Bird trapping has been a national pastime for Cypriots for many centuries but the government had to clamp down on the practice since the island was obliged to apply strict restrictions after becoming an EU member state.

The clamp down caused widespread displeasure among the population in trapping areas as it resulted in the loss of billions of euros income from the selling of birds, considered to be a gourmet delicacy.

A ruling party Member of Parliament recently pictured himself in front of a table with several songbirds in the plates, in a show of defiance and disagreement with the prohibition of bird trapping.

Cypriot authorities are sensitive to European Commission directives demanding a full prohibition of bird trapping, but are also seeking to satisfy the demand for the continuation of the practice.

They submitted an alternative action plan to Brussels providing for what they called "selective hunting" of blackcaps with small bore guns and air-rifles. The European Commission responded that under EU legislation bird killing cannot be justified in any way.

Despite campaigns by authorities to reduce bird trapping, the practice is still widespread as it is often done within the limits of fenced off private cultivations. Entering private property is considered as trespassing and can only be done with a warrant issued by a court.

But BirdLife Cyprus reported that based on its surveys, mist netting activity decreased by 13 percent in the autumn of 2015, compared to 2002.

A BirdLife Cyprus spokesman said that this is an indication that strict measures, mostly in the British Sovereign Areas territory, have yielded results.

Authorities at British bases embarked on a program of removing acacia trees from some territories, which attracted many birds and were consequently used for trapping.

The main trapping season is autumn, when millions of black and red capped song birds arrive on the island to feed on grapes and figs.

But the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), another wild life organization, said that there has been an alarming increase in bird trapping during the winter time, when bigger migratory birds arrive on the island.

BirdLife International reported in August 2015 that a total of 25 million birds of all kinds are illegally killed each year in the Mediterranean region as a whole. Famagusta area in southeast Cyprus has been recorded by the scientific journal as the single worst area for bird killing. Endit