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| What they don't put on the postcards |
I’ve followed the work of the German group Committee Against
Bird Slaughter (CABS) for a while now. I’ve been impressed by their relentless
campaigning against the persecution of birds across Europe, often alongside
groups such as Birdlife but often striking out on their own in areas less
widely known as being certain black holes for birds. Without them I might never
have read about the plight of Ortolan Buntings in the south of France or the
efforts to conserve breeding pairs of Bonelli’s Eagle in Sicily. Through this I
heard about the annual ‘camp’ in Brescia, Northern Italy, set up every year
since 1984 to monitor, prevent and inform on the widespread illegal poaching
that occurs in the region every autumn. The area is famed for its beautiful
lakes: Garda, Como, Iseo - all desirable tourist spots, but you rarely hear about
the birds silently disappearing in the hills and valleys all around. The chance
to volunteer for a worthwhile cause, in an area I’d never been to was an
exciting prospect, so the Saturday before last I flew to Bergamo for a week.
Upon arriving I had a message saying I would be met shortly by
a “tall, nearly hairless German” who I couldn’t miss. This proved to be a more
than adequate description and my hairless lift soon arrived to take me to meet
the rest of the team. I had no idea what to expect from the week before I went,
would I be shocked or angry or nervous? Or perhaps it wouldn’t be as bad as I
thought? I guess all these feelings came to be at some point during the week,
but I knew as I stood watching birds flit through the gardens of the hotel
early on the first morning and the first cracks of gunshots rang out from the
hills nearby, I was curiously looking forward to it all.
The laws pertaining to bird hunting in the Lombardy region
seem like a tangled web. Shooting is permitted 5 days a week to licensed
hunters and the legal quarry amounts to some 37 species – including ducks and
waders but the majority small passerines. It was hard to accept that the shots
I heard, sending birds like Song Thrush, Skylark, Blackbird and Redwing
plummeting from the sky, I just had to reluctantly get used to. Apparently
there are 40,000 registered hunters in the Brescia area alone, each with
permission to harvest the skies of 30 birds a day for 60 days a year*. You can
do the maths if you want. It’s appalling and I’m shocked how it gets past the
EU Birds Directive. You can’t avoid seeing or hearing the hunters, from dawn to dusk every day bar Tuesday and Friday when hunting is not allowed (I don’t suppose birds have got anywhere to keep a pocket diary?) shots would ring out at intervals, the hillsides are pock marked with small capanos – private shooting ranges. Of course with so much legal shooting it’s likely that
other birds are shot illegally too - we recovered a wounded Brambling, observed illegal Siskin decoys and
observed a hunter we suspected tried to shoot a Nuthatch in frustration.
Trapping of birds is even allowed at some installations called Rucculo where with a permit, live
trapping for hunters’ decoy birds is allowed. Birds are lured in by decoys or
food and then spooked into nets before being caged and presumably spending the
rest of their lives unwittingly calling members of their same species to their
deaths.
And then there’s the illegal killing – the trapping of
birds, by numerous means, by and large for profit. Cruel bow or archetti traps, ‘snap traps’ (trappoli) and mist nets are illegal, yet
as I found, still widely used in the area - the majority in remote villages, away from prying eyes. Birds caught in these, if live, may
be sold as decoys for hundreds of euros (I was amazed by this), sold to
restaurants where traditional ‘delicacies’ are still served despite being
outlawed, or simply eaten by the poacher. I understand that in centuries past,
birds may have represented a valuable, seasonal meal for rural people but times
have changed. Illegal archetti, snap traps and mist nets are what
we set out to find.
Following breakfast every day the group met for a briefing
which laid out the plan for the day. CABS work closely with the Italian Forest
Police, a dedicated team whose aim is to catch poachers in the act in order to
prosecute. And our aims, in most cases, revolved around this – quietly checking
the remote valleys between the lakes Iseo and Idro, a trapping hotspot, for traps
and if present, informing the police. Leaving a trap or net standing might not
be easy and birds may die, but nailing a poacher may ultimately end up saving
more.
On the first day, in pairs, we were given an area to cover
and I learned from an experienced volunteer what to look out for. As we hiked
up through spectacular alpine scenery and skirted remote cabins, I checked for
odd tracks and casual pathways in the grass, notches cut on young trees and
clearings in woods – all things that might suggest a trapping site. There were
some days when we found nothing and other days when we did. At our last stop on
my first day, we checked an area that had been flagged as a possible trapping
site. Close to a property and with dogs barking nearby, I admit I was uneasy. As we moved quietly through the scrub, my companion stopped and
pointed at some bright red berries stuck to a notch cut into a tree. In the fading
light they almost glowed and then I saw the archetti trap below. As I saw one, I turned and realised they were
all around us, on metre high sticks set in the ground in rows. I lost count how
many in the end, but more than 20. They were recently set and so we noted the
location to the pass on the info. In one we found a Robin, hanging upside down,
the cord wrapped tightly round its crushed legs. This we freed but it was too
late.
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The rest of the week took us to a number of different
places, some remote and some not so. On one occasion we checked a site where a
poacher had been caught with archetti traps set the previous year, it was
pleasing to find this time there were none. At another spot in a small town in
a valley we found a mist net and several snap traps just 50 metres from a
school yard. In another valley we found four illegal mist nets - they were not
big sites but each held birds: Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, some dead
already. In this case we removed the nets and freed what we could. Unattended
and unmanaged, fine, mesh ‘mist nets’ are death traps for birds. Even whilst
looking out for them it was easy to go within several feet of one without
realising it was there.
During the course of the week it was great to talk with the
rest of the volunteers, who during my visit were all German or Italian. It was
interesting to hear what motivated people to come, people from different
backgrounds with different interests; during the week I met a lawyer, an
electrician and a farmer among others. Not everyone shared my particular passion
for birds but everyone recognised what was right and the chance to make a real
change. Working with Alex, the camp organiser was a great experience. An
energetic, passionate guy, top botanist and grasshopper geek, it was a lesson
to watch him breathlessly traverse steep, scrubby slopes while giving
instructions on his mobile! I was interested to find out how CABS had changed
over the years and the changes he described showed a logical and I think
effective, evolution. Occasionally regarded in the past as ‘militant’ in their
approach due to not shying away from confrontation, there is now emphasis on
working with police and local groups, networking and holding regular meetings with
MEPs in Brussels. They’re still not afraid to “kick stones” or be pro-active on
the ground and that’s good – from what I saw a combination of both seems to be an
efficient way of working. Throughout the week I was told that the situation in Lombardy
has improved considerably over 25 years. There may be lots of reasons for that
– police presence, political lobbying, increased awareness and a shift in
generational attitudes, I don’t know...but the work of CABS is undeniably a massive part
of that. They are eyes on ears on the ground, working hard to make real changes
and the best of a bad situation. Long may it continue.
But it’s not over yet.
Just before I left, I heard that the police had successfully
caught the poacher from the site with the archetti I checked on the first day.
He was catching birds to sell in his brother’s restaurant down the road. I
don’t know what punishment was handed out although I was told that in most
cases it amounts to a fine of several hundred euros although it can depend on
other things such as the scale of the incident. I guess you could argue about
the effectiveness of that but at least it’s a deterrent.
There were some low points across the week but ultimately it was a unique experience and I left feeling really positive about what the
group and I personally had achieved. The days were long and hard and
exhilarating but I loved every blistered moment hiking and climbing through the
hills. There were few moments to really enjoy the scenery or the birds and other wildlife we came across (I’ll save that for another post) but
that’s not why I went after all. This is just a small part of a much bigger
problem. Throughout Europe, birds suffer horrific persecution year on year and
that has to stop.
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Thanks to all the volunteers I met on the trip (and for all the translating help!) Thanks To Alex for the photo above. Thanks for reading as ever, spread the word.
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