Bird trapping on Cyprus

With a scientific report highlighting a massive increase in bird trapping on a British base in Cyprus, I have asked my colleague Grahame Madge, who visited trapping sites ten years ago, to reflect on the challenges of bringing this illegal trade to an end...

There is no way to sugar this pill: the estimated numbers of songbirds being trapped and killed on a British base in Cyprus has increased threefold since a monitoring project began in 2002 to assess the numbers of birds being trapped each autumn. These birds are part of a massive migration which takes place every year as birds move between Europe and Africa over Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean.

For a moment, let’s just think about the sheer numbers of birds being killed on a British military base.

Last autumn, 900,000 migrating songbirds, including robins and blackcaps, perished on the Dhekelia base, which is administered as a British Sovereign Base Area by the Ministry of Defence. During the peak migration window, that is almost 15,000 songbirds a day. The ultimate fate of these birds was in the hands of criminals and gangsters who ensured that their final destination wasn’t the tropical forests and savannahs of Africa, but rather a plate, served furtively in a Cypriot restaurant to a diner eager to scoff the illicit dish of ambelopoulia – songbirds on a bed of cous-cous, to you and me.

Over the 13 years of the project, the results have been produced in a consistent manner to build a picture of bird trapping every autumn. The trend shows that the trapping levels dropped in 2004 and 2005 (just after Cyprus joined the European Union). Since then it has increased to the point we witnessed last autumn.

Ten years ago, I visited Cyprus with a gaggle of journalists who were invited to learn more about what the British authorities were doing to clamp down on this appalling trade in slaughtered songbirds.

One of the highlights of the trip was being asked to go on a night-time raid, accompanying the authorities. After an ops briefing in the early hours, we made our way across the open, but dark, terrain of the base in a small convoy of unlit vehicles. We arrived at our nocturnal rendezvous – a small clearing under the warm, but pitch-black, Cypriot sky.

This was our last chance to catch up on sleep before the operations began at first light. Too fired up on adrenaline to rest, I recall being fascinated by the contrasts of the scene. I remember vividly the muffled thumping beat of music floating over the landscape on the warm breeze from the clubs of Ayia Napa.

This was contrasted by the occasional burst of blackcap song, being played by the trappers through sound systems to draw down their quarry from the night sky as these songbirds migrate over the island. As we waited patiently for dawn to arrive the only other sounds were the occasional burbling sounds of the trappers’ mopeds as their scouts toured the area to see if their nocturnal activities were being monitored.

At first light, the authorities went in to the area being used by the trappers and a quantity of mist nets was seized. Mob-handed we descended on the nets to release the birds trapped: these were the fortunate ones.

Our nimble and gentle fingers struggled tirelessly to release blackcaps and other warblers, shrikes and other small birds from their confines. The trappers, we were told, aren’t so delicate. The birds are wrenched from nets, sometimes losing legs and wings, before waiting to have their throats cut with a penknife or being crushed between the finger and thumb of a trapper, all too well versed in this awful practice.

That was 2005. I remember being encouraged by the fact the authorities were tackling the issue and reducing it as much as possible. The trapping levels in 2005 were among the lowest recorded during the monitoring project which is funded by the RSPB and run by our fantastic colleagues in BirdLife Cyprus – the BirdLife International partner on the island.

Although I haven’t returned to Cyprus since, I’m struggling to work out what could have happened for the trapping intensity to become so much worse. I’m told that the attentions of organised crime attracted by the lucrative rewards of this grisly trade have raised the stakes.

The RSPB and our partners are trying to work with the military authorities to ensure that last year remains the worst on record. 

We’re delighted that the Base Area authorities have signed the Cyprus Stategic Action Plan on illegal bird trapping, but to cut significantly the numbers birds dying, this needs to be backed up by a scale of action appropriate to the scale of the problem.

The trappers are brazen and they need a clear signal that this slaughter won’t be tolerated. We believe a key win is the destruction of the non-native acacia which the criminals plant to attract birds to trapping sites. This dense shrub provides cover for the trappers to operate and set lines of mist nets, invisible to the birds.

Plantations and stands of acacia have been planted all over the base by the trappers. In November and December, the authorities made a great start by removing some of the stands. We hope that the military can build on this initial progress and continue with a program of acacia removal. It has been planted on an industrial scale; we trust the military can build to the same level of ambition with its removal. The Ministry of Defence have to balance many issues when planning their operations, including local tensions, and resources.

We are pleased that patrols continue to this day and that arrests are made and equipment is still seized. But everyone has to recognise that the intensity of the trapping is increasing and that an appropriate response is required, otherwise this illegal slaughter will never cease.

Quite rightly, the members of BirdLife Cyprus and the RSPB expect our organisations to campaign for this massacre to an end. Using this mandate we will continue to monitor the situation and do everything we can to encourage the authorities to ensure that at some point in the future songbirds can fly over Cyprus without ending up on a plate.