Les Landes - Large scale operation against illegal Ortolan Bunting trapping causes a stir

The German-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) today released the first results of its operations against the illegal trapping of Ortolan Buntings in the French Départment Les Landes, which ended at the weekend. They accuse the authorities responsible for the prevention of illegal trapping, through their inaction, to have made themselves accomplices or hostages of the poachers.

According to CABS, a group of their German and Italian volunteers were active during the last week of August - the peak of Ortolan Bunting migration - in the south of the Département with the task of locating illegal cage traps and reporting them to the police. A total of 27 active trapping installations with 679 cage traps were found and 80 freshly-caught Ortolan Buntings released.


“Our results show that, as before, Ortolan Buntings are still being trapped and the authorities do practically nothing to combat this illegal practice” states team leader Andrea Rutigliano of CABS. He continues “the massive losses caused by poaching endanger the survival of this species in Europe. The extensive measures undertaken for the conservation of the Ortolan Bunting in other EU states are thereby counteracted”. According to CABS, the Ortolan Bunting has declined massively throughout its complete European range and the species is on the Red List in many European countries.

The Committee sharply criticises the responsible gendarmerie station Aire sur L´Adour und Tartas. In spite of numerous telephone calls to the police, no officers were prepared to meet with the conservationists at the trapping installations located in order to collect evidence and confiscate the traps. Even when CABS representatives reported the locations of several installations diect to the station on 28 and 30 August there was no reaction. “The traps and the decoy Ortolan Buntings were still there 3 days after we reported them” states Rutigliano. “In reply to a follow-up cal by CABS the deputy head of the station stated that the trappers reported by CABS had set only “a small number of traps” and would therefore not be prosecuted.
“There is a total lack of political will to prosecute the illegal trappers in the region” Rutigliano summarises.

This is highlighted by the fact that many trappers operate quite openly. CABS report that many traps are visible from the road and are closely guarded by their owners. Last Sunday at Lac du Lourden, clearly encouraged by the absence of police, a trapper fired his shotgun at three Italian volunteers as they were about to free several freshly-caught Ortolan Buntings from his traps. Fortunately no one was injured - due more to good luck than anything else.

In Tartas on Wednesday a CABS team returning from operations was tailed as far as the local police station by a column of more than 10 vehicles and there mobbed by an irate crowd and sprinkled with urine.
A further incident occurred near the town of Campagne where all four tyres of CABs vehicle were slashed. The team had freed five Ortolan Buntings in this area a short time before.

On 2 September, because of the numerous complaints by the illegal trappers and the increasing violence against the teams, the Prefect des Landes, Claude Morel, instructed the CABs volunteers in writing to leave the Département. “The letter was handed over to us by the police with the comment that they could nor longer guarantee our safety” states CABS President Heinz Schwarze. He considers that this attitude on the part of the authorities makes the police, as well as the Prefecture, accomplices or hostages of the poachers.
The Committee has announced that it will send a comprehensive report on this year’s operations, to include their comments on the clear lack of action on the part of the authorities, to the European Commission.

 „Those tolerating the trapping of highly endangered bird species are in contravention of the European Bird Protection Guidelines“ comments Schwarze. Should the Commission arrive at the same conclusion France could be faced with high financial sanctions.

CABS has today published a video clip of the operations in the internet. The material shows the volunteers locating numerous trapping installations and releasing Ortolan Buntings. T

CABS was founded in Germany in 1975 and is in the meantime internationally active with some 10,000 members and sponsors throughout Europe. For more that 20 years the organisation has conducted bird protection camps in poaching hotspots in Europe, More information in English and German can be found on out homepage at www.komitee.de/en/homepage

Lo leo aquí:
http://www.komitee.de/en/actions-and-projects/france/bird-trapping/south-france-ortolan-bunting/pr-ortolan-392012