Filenews 9 December 2020
BirdLife Cyprus describes as "disgraceful" the amendment of the law on the protection and management of wild birds that will be before the House of Representatives tomorrow Thursday. As he points out, if passed, it would amount to a serious relaxation of the law and undermine efforts in Cyprus to protect migratory birds from illegal killing.
This amendment proposes that a reduced out-of-court fine of EUR 200 should apply for the offence of unlawful killing (with a shotgun or a stick) of up to 50 birds from a list containing 14 protected non-predatory species. "With the current law providing for an out-of-court order of EUR 2 000 for the illegal killing of even one bird, we wonder what purpose it serves and on what basis the proposal to reduce the fine to 1/10 of the existing one is based," birdlife notes.
Among the 14 species of birds included in the amendment are Abelopouli, Melisophagos, Kokkinolaimis, Mougiannoudi and Sycophagos, species that are targeted and often fall victim to illegal killing, either by shotgun or by nets and nets. The sad crime of illegally killing dozens of bee-goers in Meneou, recently denounced by BirdLife Cyprus, clearly demonstrates that, with the passage of the amendment to reduce the out-of-court fine, the problem of illegal bird killing will worsen, and such incidents will become a daily occurrence.
"This proposal is in essence an unacceptable relaxation of the law, which in practice decriminalises the illegal hunting of protected non-predatory species using a shotgun or a shotgun," it states. BirdLife Association and Tarra Cypria - the Cyprus Foundation for the Protection of the Environment - are calling on the House of Representatives to remove the list of 14 bird species and the recommendation for a reduced out-of-court fine of 200 euros for their unlawful killing.
The two organisations stress that penalties and out-of-court fines must be strict in order to achieve more effective enforcement of legislation, and must act as a repressive act against the commission of poaching and illegal trapping offences.
"Out-of-court proceedings of EUR 200 cannot be regarded as either dissuasive or punitive, on the contrary we believe that they will encourage offenders to continue to shoot and trap these protected species." It should be noted that, by comparison, out-of-court fines for other offences, e.g. for non-compliance of hunters with an inspection of the Hunting and Fauna Service, the same amending law proposes an out-of-court eur 300. Therefore, the two organisations consider it unjustified and unreasonable to propose such a low fine of EUR 200 for illegal possession/killing of up to 50 birds with a stick or shotgun of these 14 species.
The 14 species of birds proposed
Vinebird (Sylvia atricapilla), Bee-eater (Merops apiaster), Spinos (Fringilla coe lbs), Sparrow the Spanish (Passer hispaniolensis), Spitospourgitis (Stru (Passer domesticus), Kokkinolaimis (Kotsiinopoupoufos) (Erithacus rubecula), Thamnotsirovakos (Sylvia communis), Stactomygohaftis (Muscicapa strita), Mugiannouin (Phylloscopus collybita), Thamnophylloscope (Phylloscopus trochilus), Kalamopotamide (Acrocephalus scir (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus), Mougiannouin (Cettia cetti), Sycophagus (Florkos or Klorkos) (Oriolus oriolus).
Source: eyenews
