Record number of birds illegally killed on British military base, says RSPB
More than 800,000 songbirds, including blackcaps, robins and garden warblers, are estimated to have been illegally killed last autumn on a British military base in Cyprus. New research by the RSPB and BirdLife Cyprus identified a record number of illegal and virtually invisible “mist” nets set to trap migrating birds on British territory in the Mediterranean. The number of nets discovered on Ministry of Defence (MoD) land in Cyprus has increased by 183% since monitoring began in 2002. Small-scale trapping of songbirds birds for human consumption has been practiced for centuries in Cyprus, but despite it being outlawed in 1974 it is now carried out on an industrial scale. The report estimates that more than 2.3 million birds, from approximately 153 different species, were killed across the whole of Cyprus last autumn, with the birds served as traditional “ambelopoulia” in island restaurants. “The British base is the number one bird-killing hotspot on the whole island of Cyprus,” said Martin Harper, RSPB conservation director, calling on the British government to help embattled military base police stop the illegal killing. “Many much-loved garden bird species are being trapped and killed for huge profit by criminal gangs.” Trappers have planted non-native Australian acacia trees on MoD land to lure passing birds. They then place long lines of netting in the trees to catch the birds. The military administration removed 54 acres of acacia over two years but were forced to virtually abandon the clearance last autumn – removing just seven acres – after trappers organised large protests and a dramatic blockade of the base. Trappers also deploy electronic calling devices over the base at night to lure the birds, and the conservation charities said they feared some parts of the military base were becoming a no-go area for the committed, but outnumbered, local police force. “The trappers’ brazen prevention of the removal of their criminal infrastructure from MoD land could never be tolerated here in the UK,” said Harper. “The UK government must therefore provide enforcement support to help the base authorities respond to the trappers and safely remove the remaining 90 acres of acacia so that they cannot be used to kill hundreds of thousands more birds.”
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