News: Short & sweet / archive
October to December 2025

We extend our heartfelt Christmas and New Year wishes, along with our sincere thanks, to all who have supported our Foundation's work for the benefit of nature and biodiversity with such dedication and commitment throughout 2025.
Despite political and economic changes in Germany and around the world, our 23rd year of work in species conservation was positive and successful for our nature and species protection projects. Thanks to the continued financial support of many long-standing, loyal donors and sponsors, as well as new donors and sponsors, we were able to consistently conduct our statutory project work in 2025. Once again, you deserve our heartfelt thanks.

We would also like to express our heartfelt thanks to the tenants and area managers of our Foundation's nature conservation areas for implementing our statutory objectives, and the species protection land use guidelines designed for this purpose, with great competence and passionate conviction for the benefit and consolidation of our biotope habitats and the diversity of wildlife species that is found there.  

We are well prepared and optimistic as we enter our 24th year of work in species protection, and we will continue to develop our existing nature and species conservation projects with great passion. We are particularly looking forward to working with you to successfully address the challenges ahead for new nature and species conservation projects in Germany and Italy.

The teams at the Foundation Pro Biodiversity in Bielefeld and Sicily wish you and your families a peaceful and joyous Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year in 2026!

Thank you for your loyalty and your continued support.

 

Cyprus Bird Protection Camp / Final Report Autumn 2025
The Autumn Bird Protection Camp special operations ‘Occupy Akas’ and ‘Dead Air’ required our bird protection teams to carry out extensive and time-consuming on-site preparations for the missions and a variety of media activities. However, the results were well worth the effort.
 
The Autumn Bird Protection Camp, which has now come to an end, will be remembered as a milestone in our bird protection efforts against the ‘big players’ in the bird slaughter business in Cyprus. For many years, we have fought in vain against the mass industrialised illegal trapping of migratory birds by ‘Akas’ and ‘Trikkis’ (our code names). Their social status and influence, as well as their extensive network in the bird slaughter scene, have regularly prevented even politicians and the police from consistently enforcing the applicable laws.
 
The previous ‘cheap’ fines did not prevent their bird slaughter activities for even a single day. With our actions this year and the extensive publications and professional media work, the police could no longer ignore these serious violations of the applicable EU Birds Directive and Cypriot nature conservation laws. As a result, an anti-terrorism police unit was also deployed during police operations on the properties of ‘Akas’ and ‘Trikkis’. ‘Akas’ was caught three times engaging in illegal bird trapping with nets, and ‘Trikkis’ five times!

The result was that these bird slaughter professionals finally received hefty fines totalling almost €150,000! In bird-slaughter currency, this corresponds to the proceeds from 40,000 to 50,000 illegally killed songbirds, which small-time bird poachers can obtain from black-market bird dealers.
 
The successes against the ‘big players’ did not dissuade our bird protection teams from investing another eight weeks of work in searching for trapping and hunting sites, monitoring and documenting illegal bird trapping and hunting activities in a manner admissible in court, dismantling illegal trapping equipment and filing further criminal charges.
 
The overall results of this year's autumn bird protection camp in Cyprus are equally impressive.

Overall results of the CABS & SPA Autumn Bird Protection Camp 2025 on Cyprus
(10 September – 25 November):
 
Bird trappers / illegal bird hunters

• 105 illegal bird trapping sites located and monitored
• 1,547 illegal limesticks dismantled
• 137 illegal mist nets dismantled
• 89 electronic bird call devices (51 for trapping / 38 for hunting) dismantled
• 55 bird poachers (35 trappers / 20 hunters) caught and charges filed 

The good news for migratory birds that have chosen Cyprus as their wintering ground is also bad news for Cyprus's bird poachers and hunters: Cyprus, we'll be back. Our bird conservationists will soon return for the Winter Bird Protection Camp on Cyprus... That's a promise!

2nd Cyprus Bird Protection Camp Report 2025
The special operations “Occupy Akas” and “Dead Air” have also brought very positive results. Although both operations ran only for several days and ended around 2 weeks ago, they achieved results that had never been accomplished before. The Cyprus Police finally recognised professional trapping as a serious issue that needs to be dealt with.
 
They carried out several well-organised anti-poaching operations against the two biggest trappers in Cyprus: Akas and Trikkis. In total, the Cyprus Police seized 15 nets from Akas and 16 nets from Trikkis. During one particularly successful operation at the Akas site, police found seven nets set and freed 350 migrating birds from the nets. At Trikkis' site, police found 11 nets set and freed 150 birds. A further 150 birds were already dead when police officers arrived at the trapping location.
 
As a result of police operations, Akas has been issued a fine totalling 30,000 euros. Trikkis was fined the same amount. It is the first time in the history of our Cyprus Bird Protection Camps that the big trappers were confronted with such hefty fines.
 

Overall results of the CABS & SPA Autumn Bird Protection Camp 2025 in Cyprus from 10 September to 10. October:
 
Bird trappers

• 68 active illegal bird-trapping sites found and monitored
• 1,124 illegal limesticks dismantled
• 55 illegal mist nets dismantled
• 28 electronic birdcall decoys dismantled
• 25 bird poachers caught and charges filed 

Bird hunters

• 17 active illegal bird hunting sites found and monitored
• 1 bird hunter caught with an electronic bird call decoy and charges filed
• 1 bird hunter caught shooting sparrows and charges filed
• 5 electronic birdcall decoys dismantled 

We hope very much that the Cyprus Police will continue such consequent operations against big trappers until the end of the autumn bird migration period and the corresponding trapping season. This is the only way to put a stop to professional bird poaching, which makes a lot of money from illegally killed songbirds.