News:
Project of the Month April 1

In addition to the spring bird protection camp on Cyprus, we will, in future, also take action against aggressive bird hunters and poachers on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

Thanks to our extensive hunting site controls and our continued high pressure through criminal charges, hunters in Cyprus were more restrained in their illegal and cruel bird hunting activities this winter, in contrast to the autumn 2024 bird migration season.

The relatively mild winter in the Mediterranean region certainly contributed to this. As a result, Song Thrushes, Eurasian Skylarks, and Common Starlings avoided the island of Cyprus in large numbers this winter, spending the winter months instead on the Greek mainland and islands, as well as the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. However, this changing migratory behaviour does not mean that our native migratory birds will be spared during their wintering period in the Mediterranean, which is becoming milder, and on Cyprus.

That is why we will be in Cyprus with our colleagues from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) in the first two weeks of April, and from the beginning of May to the start of June, with two teams to keep up the surveillance pressure on the limestick trapping sites of unrepentant migratory bird poachers.

In future, an additional spring focus here will be the search for and detection of ground nets that property owners stretch around their properties to keep stray dogs, cats and even snakes away from the property. These ground nets are real death traps for a variety of rare migratory birds, as well as for mammals such as the endangered Long-eared Hedgehog and increasingly endangered reptiles, including lizards, chameleons, and agamas.

Additionally, on the Greek island of Zakynthos, up to 10 bird protection activists will be deployed in three teams in the Spring Migration Bird Camp from mid-April until the end of the first week of May. In addition to the centre of the island of Zakynthos and the Vasilikos peninsula, the central area of operation will be on the Keri peninsula. Last spring, we identified extensive migratory bird shooting sites in the area and also came into conflict with highly aggressive bird hunters on several occasions. But as one bird hunter told us with a touch of irony, "Instead of annoying us and causing trouble here, stay at home and drink our ouzo! Here with us, you risk a beating."

Our operational material, which is essential for saving ‘life and limb’, were severely strained during our last autumn bird migration camps in Cyprus and Zakynthos: one of our emergency vehicles needs expensive repairs and a car demolished by poachers during a chase has to be scrapped, so we have to obtain a replacement second-hand car.

The life-saving night vision device, which was lost during a nighttime altercation with bird poachers, also needs to be replaced as a matter of urgency. And for legally sound documentation and to protect our bird protectors in Keri and our publications in local newspapers against the sometimes violent aggression of bird poachers against our bird protectors and for our publications on the internet and in local newspapers, we need to purchase four more body cams to be able to demonstrate, beyond doubt and well documented, to the local public and the EU bureaucrats in Brussels the true extent of the crimes and violations of the EU Birds Directive, of Greek nature conservation laws and of the ban on spring bird hunting that has been in force in Greece since 1987.

We still need around € 23,500 to cover the operational costs of the spring bird protection camps on Cyprus and the Greek island of Zakynthos, as well as the replacement of an emergency vehicle and other essential equipment.

Please help us with your donation so that we can once again demonstrate strength and determination in our fight against the unscrupulous bird killers on these two islands in the Mediterranean with our two spring bird protection camps.