Reuters AlertNet Lite - Environmentalists slam Cyprus for spring bird hunt

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Environmentalists slam Cyprus for spring bird hunt

04 May 2007 15:58:47 GMT
Source: Reuters

NICOSIA, May 4 (Reuters) - Wildlife campaigners criticised Cyprus on Friday for giving the go-ahead for two says of spring bird shooting, a practice banned under European Union directives and which last took place over a decade ago.

Bird hunters will be permitted to shoot on May 6 and May 9, marking the first time the pursuit will be held in this eastern Mediterranean island since 1993.

Hunters, who number more than 40,000 in a Greek Cypriot population of about 750,000, are a powerful lobby in the country which holds presidential elections next year. The targets will be turtle doves, a declining species across Europe.

"It will be a case of targeting a threatened bird species at the most vulnerable stage of its life-cycle," said Martin Hellicar, the executive manager of Birdlife Cyprus, the local arm of the international conservationist group.

Turtle doves are a legitimate game species in the autumn, but not, say environmentalists, in spring when adults are migrating to breed.

Conservationists estimate about 100 million migratory birds pass over Cyprus to and from continental Europe each year.

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Last updated:Fri May 4 16:02:47 2007