December 07, 2004
EU says Malta has worst hunting abuse record
The increased and dedicated efforts of individual conservationists and protest groups over the past 4 years appears to be bearing fruit. It DOES help to support a protest campaign!
From the Times of Malta 8. December 2004:
The European Commission will be sending an inspection team to Malta in March amid claims that the island is the worst per capita abuser of hunting regulations in the EU.
The Commission has been inundated by letters of complaints from Maltese residents, tourists, MEPs and NGOs and it was high time for the EU to carry out a detailed inspection of the hunting situation in Malta, Anne Teller, administrator on hunting issues at DG Environment, told The Times.
The six-man delegation will be made up of individuals from the DG Environment's Nature and Biodiversity Unit and the Legal Unit. The team was originally meant to visit Malta by the end of this year but decided to postpone its trip to March to coincide with a period notorious for illegal hunting.
Ms Teller said a total of 95 per cent of complaint letters from Malta sent to the DG Environment's Unit for Nature and Biodiversity revolve around hunting.
"We receive letters about hunting in Malta every week, ranging from the fact that birds are being trapped and that migratory birds are being shot down during the close season," she said.
The DG Environment has asked the Maltese authorities for clarification about several instances of protected birds being shot in the past few months. Birds of prey, including short-toed eagles, flamingos and herons were shot down at the height of the hunting season in September and October.
Ms Teller said that several MEPs, especially British, Germans and Italians, have urged the EU to scrutinise Malta's hunting situation closely. France, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus were the biggest offenders in the EU where bird hunting was concerned, Ms Teller said, though Malta was now the worst in terms of per capita flouting of hunting regulations.
Read the full article at - http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=172060 - which states that
Malta is now the worst per capita abuser of hunting regulations in the EU which gives those of us who have been involved regularly in anti-hunting campaigns new hope for the future. But we want to see concrete results.
David
__________________
David Conlin
Proact International
Posted by Surfbirds at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2004
Bird Smuggling - A Gruesome Find
A gruesome find: Customs officers discover suitcases full of song bird corpses in Munich – 2,100 Meadow Pipits confiscated.
Press Release by the Komitee gegen den Vogelmord (Committee against Bird Slaughter)
http://www.komitee.de
3. December 2004
Munich. In the course of a routine inspection of luggage with an x-ray machine at Munich Airport Customs officers found 4 suitcases stuffed to the brim with highly protected song birds. In the luggage of a 40 year old Italian, en route to North Italy from Romania, the officers discovered 2,101 dead Meadow Pipits, neatly laid out and packed in plastic bags. The Committee against Bird Slaughter has received information to the effect that the birds were intended for sale to gourmets in a Venetian restaurant. Despite strict laws and regulations, "Polenta ucelli" (Polenta with song bird) or "Spiedo ucelli" (song bird on a spit) are still considered delicacies which can be bought ‘under the counter’ at high prices.
According to the spokesperson of the Committee Axel Hirschfeld “the illegal sale of song birds in Italy is still a million Euro business”. Bird protection societies estimate that in North Italy alone 2 million thrushes, robins, finches and other song birds are eaten. The poaching and smuggling of these birds is professionally organised. “Not long ago an attempt was made to smuggle dead song birds in coffins from Romania” Hirschfeld says.
The Committee also stated that hundreds of thousands of migrating birds are shot or trapped on their roosts every year in Romania for the benefit of Italian gourmets. Meadow pipits belong to the family of pipits and wagtails Motacillidae and are on the Red List in Germany. Population figures have sunk drastically in the last few years; according to the Committee only 90,000 pairs still breed in Germany.
Press Release by the Komitee gegen den Vogelmord (Committee against Bird Slaughter)
http://www.komitee.de
3. December 2004
Further information, or pictures of plucked song birds, can be obtained from the Committee:
Telefon:+49 228-66 55 21 or Telefax: + 49 228-66 52 80
Alexander Heyd, Auf dem Dransdorfer Berg 98, 53121 Bonn
Translation and worldwide distribution David Conlin 2004
Posted by Surfbirds at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2004
The Largest Wind Farm Project in Europe threatens Thousands of Birds
Earlier this year Proact and other organisations campaigned against the plan by Farm Energy Ltd to erect six wind turbines on Beinn Mholach inside the Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area (SPA), Isle of Lewis, in close proximity to nesting Golden Eagle (site also designated under the RAMSAR Convention)
We warned that this would only be the ‘foot in the door’ for more ambitious projects – après moi le Deluge. Nevertheless the Western Isles Council Comhairle nan Eilean Siar approved the application.
The application by Amec http://www.amec.com/wind/2ndlevel.asp?pageid=8038 (those with more than a passing interest in the detail can follow the links from this page to find more about the proposed development) and British Energy http://www.british-energy.com/cgi-bin/public/frame/frame.pl?url=media/press/items/item80.html to build 234 wind turbines on the North Lewis Peatlands SPA in the Scottish Western Isles has now been submitted.
The developers proudly present the project as “Europe’s largest wind farm involving the construction of up to 300 wind turbines …. creating at least 600 MW of electrical power”. The Western Isles, which have one of the most beautiful wild landscapes in Britain, would become the ‘renewables capital of Europe’ with more industrialisation in the shape of a turbine and tower manufacturing plant at Arnish Point. What a prospect!
Individuals and conservation organisations believe this will be hugely damaging and that the chosen site is the wrong location for such a major industrial development.
The Environmental Statement (ES) commissioned by Amec states that, in the course of the development’s estimated 25-year lifetime, 50 Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos and 16 Red-throated Divers Gavia stellata are at risk of fatally colliding with the wind turbine blades.
The ES also concludes that:
• 352 Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria territories; and
• 314 Dunlin Calidris alpina territories could be displaced during the operation of the wind farm and hundreds more will be affected during construction.
• Merlin Falco columbarius, Greenshank Tringa nebularia, Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus, Greylag Goose Anser anser and Corncrake Crex crex may also be affected by displacement, disturbance or collision.
The RSPB, which is also objecting to the Scottish Executive about the proposal, has produced a BirdLife briefing which is also available online at
http://www.proact-campaigns.net/windfarmsandbirds/rspb.html
The Amec/british Energy application has been submitted to the Scottish Executive for their approval. The deadline for objecting to the proposal is December 13th. This will be not only Europe's, but at time of posting, the world’s largest wind farm. It is proposed for an area with international conservation designations and if this is approved, NOWHERE in Scotland will be out of bounds for development! Other countries will not be slow to follow.
You are encouraged to lodge an objection in support of the campaign against the siting of this wind farm in the Lewis SPA at:
http://www.proact-campaigns.net/windfarmsandbirds/amec_and_lewis.html
David Conlin
Proact International
Posted by Surfbirds at 07:19 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2003
Pro-Act Tunkinsky valley Threat
"In the past ten years the unique and inimitable natural beauty of our small homeland, the Tunkinsky valley, has been subject to extremely harmful human impact - fires, forest clearances and the drainage of the Koimorsky marsh. The creation of the National Park within the Tunkinksy region has hardly weakened man's influence on the fragile and vulnerable nature of the Tunkinsky region. And now a new disaster threatens: there are plans to lay a gas pipeline through the Tunkinsky valley in order to pump gas to China and other countries." [A conservationist in Buryatia]
The territory of the Park is covered with so-called taiga - primeval cedar-tree forest. There are 200 mineral water springs in the park.
Rare, protected species in the Park include Snow Leopard Uncia uncia, Siberian Ibex Capra sibirica, Black Stork Ciconia nigra, Bean Goose Anser fabalis, Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla and other rare fauna.
Russian Ecologists stress that the future not only of Tunkinskaya Hollow is at stake; but also conservation per se in the Russian Federation.
Help Russian and local conservationists in their battle against the pipeline. The next major deadline is 1 April 2003. You can join others in protesting to the President of Buryatia in whose country the park lies.
Join Proact and others and add your support at < http://www.proactnow.org/ppsi/id22.html >
David Conlin
Proact, campaigning for birds and their habitats .... joining costs nothing...doing nothing costs birds!
Join in at < www.proactnow.org/team > the internet lobby forum by birders - for birders.
Posted by Surfbirds at 11:18 PM | Comments (1)