CABS urges MPs to protect anti-poaching cooperation ahead of environment committee meeting

Nicosia, Cyprus. The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) on Tuesday urged MPs to strengthen wildlife protection and reject what it described as attempts to disrupt cooperation between NGOs, police and state authorities ahead of a House environment committee meeting on Wednesday.

Dispute over committee participation

The appeal followed comments on Monday by ELAM MP and House environment committee chairman Linos Papayiannis, who said he would not invite anti-hunting activists to the upcoming committee debate.

Papayiannis said the activists’ conduct had gone “beyond the limits of what is tolerable and permissible”. He accused the group of reporting hunters with valid licences who were hunting legally and claimed activists had, in some cases, stood in front of armed hunters to obstruct them.

Confirming that CABS would not appear before the committee, Papayiannis said: “I am neither going to invite them nor do I recognise them”.

CABS response

CABS said its volunteers operate strictly within the legal framework of the Republic to monitor and enforce the EU birds directive. It denied Papayiannis’ claims that the group disregarded order, police, the game and fauna service, or the law.

The organisation said Cypriot MPs should reject political manoeuvres that could weaken anti-poaching operations and instead support cooperation between civil society and law enforcement.

CABS argued that yielding to pressure from ELAM and hunting associations would severely damage the Republic’s international standing and reverse progress in combating wildlife crime. It welcomed the parliamentary session as an opportunity to highlight what it called the indispensable contribution of conservation groups and rejected efforts to restrict field operations.

Anti-poaching operations

“Joint operations between game wardens, police, and NGOs have been the backbone of successful anti-poaching efforts in Cyprus for years,” CABS president Karl-Heinz Kreutzer said.

According to CABS, its reports contributed to the conviction of 55 bird poachers during last autumn’s hunting season. The group said 1,621 lime sticks used to trap birds, 139 mist nets and 89 electronic bird callers were confiscated, while 1,286 live birds caught in nets or on lime sticks were freed.