Surfbirds News

BirdLife Cyprus, the RSPB's partner on the island, has protested.

Under the relevant bird protection law, the British Sovereign Base Area (SBA) court could have imposed a fine of up to €17,000 or up to three years imprisonment, or both. The massacre was one of the most severe, from a conservation perspective, ever reported in Europe.

Red-footed Falcon © Nic Hallam, from the surfbirds galleries

BirdLife Cyprus added that the poaching situation in general – and the situation regarding illegal bird trapping in particular - sharply deteriorated on the Island during 2007, following several years of improvement, and called for urgent intervention from the EU.

After plea-bargaining before their court appearance, the two Limassol men accused of gunning down the threatened birds of prey admitted to shooting only four of the falcons, which they said they had mistaken for turtle doves. The shooting took place in a 'no hunting' area at Phasouri, within the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area.

Despite admitting to shooting the falcons in their testimony to SBA police shortly after their arrest in mid-October, the two had initially pleaded not guilty before the court to charges of shooting protected species in a prohibited area. But, after plea-bargaining, the prosecution amended the number of shot falcons on the charge sheet to just four.

'This is disastrous case of failure of a judicial system coming close on the heels of failure of an enforcement system,' said BirdLife Cyprus Executive Manager Martin Hellicar.

He added: 'The shooting of these highly endangered falcons should never have been allowed to happen and the derisory penalties imposed today will not even begin to act as a deterrent for other would-be poachers in what is a well-known poaching black-spot.

'Unfortunately, ineffective penalties such as the ones imposed today are the norm when it comes to poaching offences in Cyprus, whether this be with guns, nets or limesticks. It is high time for Brussels to take serious note of the degenerating poaching situation in Cyprus - particularly as regards illegal bird trapping, which doubled last autumn - and demand effective enforcement action from both the UK and Cyprus governments.'

On-going monitoring of illegal bird trapping by BirdLife Cyprus showed trappers killed an estimated 500,000 birds in autumn last year, to be sold as expensive ambelopoulia delicacies in local restaurants. The banned delicacies were found to be freely available in local restaurants.

The cold-blooded shooting of the Red-footed falcon flock had caused widespread outrage in Cyprus and across Europe. The handsome falcons – a species of global conservation concern – appeared to have been shot down for 'target practice' as they rested on the Akrotiri peninsula, a key stop-over point for migrant birds heading for Africa. Farm workers found forty-six of the migrating falcon flock dead at the scene. Six injured birds were taken to the Cyprus Game Fund bird hospital, where they later died of their injuries.

This is not the first time illegal shooting has resulted in the killing of birds of prey and other migratory birds, such as bee-eaters, at Phasouri on the Akrotiri peninsula, Limassol. BirdLife Cyprus has for years been calling for effective anti-poaching action on the peninsula, which is the most important autumn migration stop-over area on the Island for thousands of birds, and birds of prey in particular.

After the October massacre, the Sovereign Base Area police and Cyprus Game Fund said they were stepping up joint anti-poaching patrols in the Akrotiri area. The main problem on the peninsula in recent years has been the absence of such joint action. Taking advantage of this enforcement gap, illegal hunters have profited along the ‘border’ between the base area and the republic, simply stepping across the dividing line to avoid either SBA Police or Game Fund patrols.

'BirdLife Cyprus will be keeping a very close watch on the poaching situation in the Akrotiri area,' Hellicar vowed.

Nicola Crockford, of the RSPB added: 'As the spring migration begins in earnest, Cypriot authorities and the British Sovereign Base Areas, in partnership, can show their commitment to bird protection by clamping down decisively on those individuals who illegally kill birds.'