LIPU Anti-poaching Success in Sardinia
POACHING IN SARDINIA: 930 TRAPS FOR SMALL MIGRATORY BIRDS REMOVED BY LIPU VOLUNTEERS – IN ONE WEEK
For the first time drones are used in the search for bird nets.
A new appeal by LIPU: “Boycott the ‘grive’, it is the fruit of illegality and commits serious violence on animals”
Drones in flight and volunteers on the paths to defeat the serious scourge of poaching in Sardinia. This is announced by LIPU, which has just concluded the anti-poaching campaign around Sulcis, in the province of Cagliari, where every year, during the migration of birds, a massacre of thrushes, blackbirds and robins is carried out. The aim is the preparation of the “grive”, a local “typical” dish for the Christmas holidays.
Thanks also to new technologies such as drones, the area, one of the “hottest” for illegal hunting in Italy, has been searched by volunteers who have walked the “paths of death” on foot, where poachers position deadly traps on branches and on the ground. 930 of them were removed in a week by the LIPU teams and delivered to the Corpo Forestale of the Sardinia Region. A further action to combat poaching, in particular that aimed at the illegal capture of ungulates, was carried out by the LIPU volunteers within the WWF oasis of Monte Arcosu.
“In all probability, due to the severe drought this year – says Gigliola Magliocco, coordinator of the anti-poaching teams of LIPU – the Mediterranean area has produced very few little fruit of, for instance, myrtle and the strawberry tree. For this reason the birds did not stop to feed but in spite of this we have cleared numerous paths equipped with bird traps, waiting to be activated by the poachers as soon as the migration starts, and several traps for ungulates have been removed“.
New strategies to increase the effectiveness of the anti-poaching actions of the law-enforcement forces came thanks to a workshop on the impact of poaching on migratory birds, organized at the beginning of December by LIPU in collaboration with the Forestry Corps of the Sardinia Region. The police forces , environmental associations and the judiciary also participated in the workshop. Among the speakers at the workshop was ISPRA, which presented a report on the effects of poaching on a national and global level.
“We appeal to all the people to not consume the ‘grive’ on the occasion of the upcoming holidays – adds the president of the LIPU, Fulvio Mamone Capria – Poaching in this beautiful area of Sardinia is still a sad reality but the things we have achieved in recent years to sensitize and educate in particular the younger generations, we are sure, will bring the desired results “.