Why would Pakistan allow exemptions from global conservation regulations? The bird meat is considered an aphrodisiac, which may explain why the men hunt.

Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud reportedly killed 1,977 of the nearly-extinct houbara bustards last January, violating his hunting permit by killing so many of the birds. The rest of his party killed an additional 123 of the creatures, raising the final death toll to a staggering 2,100.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources estimates the houbara bustards’ global population to be at 110,000, declining by around 20% annually.

The incident, described in a report dated February 2014, says that during the safari the prince hunted the birds for 15 days in reserved and protected areas, poached birds in other areas for six days and then “took rest” for two days.

The report was prepared by local divisional forest and wildlife department officer Jaffar Baloch, according to Dawn News.

Classified as a vulnerable species due to hunting and habitat degradation, the houbara bustard is globally protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Hunting these birds is banned in Pakistan, but the government issues special permits to Gulf states’ royals allowing them to hunting up to 100 birds in 10 days in the area allocated, excluding reserved and protected areas.

How much money changes hands to obtain special permits remains unspecified.

It’s not known whether the prince will face any punishment. But shouldn’t the Pakistani government be smacked too?

Image of slaughtered birds from Pakistan Defense

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Speaking in an interview with Al Jazeera, al-Shabaab’s spokesperson for military operations Sheikh Abulaziz Abu Muscab acknowledged their responsibility for the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall – a haven for foreign expats, including media, embassy employees and NGO workers from a raft of well-meaning organizations.

“The place we attacked is Westgate shopping mall,” Abu Muscab told Hamza Mohamed.

“It is a place where tourists from across the world come to shop, where diplomats gather. It is a place where Kenya’s decision-makers go to relax and enjoy themselves. Westgate is a place where there are Jewish and American shops. So we have to attack them.”

At least 61 civilians and six Kenyan law enforcement officials were killed in the attack, and roughly 62 of the 175 injured remain in hospital. A four day standoff has ended, six attackers are said to be dead, and the police have 11 suspects in custody, according to the most recent press reports.

But as many commentators note, it seems more questions than answers have been raised by the Al-Qaeda-linked group’s attack.

Asked whether they were hoping that Kenya will move its forces out of Somalia, Abu Muscab said, “That question is not for us to answer. That is for the Kenyan government to answer. It is up to them to withdraw their soldiers or not. If they don’t withdraw, attacks like this will become common in Kenya. It is possible if they don’t withdraw attacks like this will happen in Kenyan cities and towns every day.”

This particular attack was likely funded by Al-Qaeda, according to Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed. She told Al Jazeera in a separate interview that al-Shabab was not acting alone at Westgate, and that the attack was part of an international terrorism campaign – not an isolated local incident.

But conservationists and intelligence officials warn that increasingly sophisticated poaching syndicates are linked with terrorists groups, including al-Shabab, who need a solid cash stream in order to continue their operations. Hillary Clinton, who has taken on elephant and rhino poaching, is expected to say as much at an upcoming conference on Thursday.

The Westgate crew had grenades, 44 magnums and general purpose machine guns (GPMGs), and 15,000 rounds of ammunition per terrorist (there were reportedly six, all dead), according to Margot Kiser, a local journalist who quotes a senior member of the Kenya Defense Force.

Tsavo Trust Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, Ian Saunders has a long history not just in wildlife conservation but also with the British military and counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan. He is also one of the leading voices in a new push to treat poaching syndicates as a threat not only to biodiversity, but to global security as well.

Speaking at a U.S. congressional hearing last November, Saunders warned that the rising cost of elephant tusks (ivory) makes the trade attractive for terrorist groups that need funding.

Mentioning al-Shabab in particular, Saunders says that poaching could potentially fund terror not only in East Africa, but throughout the globe.

“Al-Shabab is estimated to have between 5,000 and 10,000 core fighters,” said Saunders.

Three years prior to the Westgate offensive, they killed 76 people in Kampala, Uganda in two synchronized attacks, and have since continued their reign of terror with members hailing from disparate tribes and a wide range of nations.

In response to al-Shabab aggression, Kenya shut down the group’s access to the Kismayo port, which was a major stream of revenue for them. Among other things, they benefitted from charcoal sold in massive quantities to the Middle East. Now they have to look elsewhere to fund their activities.

“In Afghanistan opium has been a revenue source for the Taliban,” says Saunders. “In East Africa, we are increasingly seeing that elephants are now in the gun sights of Somalia and localized gangsters. The market for ivory is now at an unprecedented level – as is the poaching.”

He said that if al-Shabab is affiliated with the ivory racket, which he believes they are, the demand and market for legalizing ivory give them potential to carry out an increasing number of attacks.

“…22 kilograms of ivory now equates to well over $50,000,” said Saunders. “…only 1.6 tusks would be required to fund a double terrorist attack on two embassies. That equates to just one middle aged elephant.”

The leafy narcotic khat, which is still legal in the Horn of Africa, may also be funding al-Shabaab’s terrorist activity.

Image of Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Youth Journalism

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It’s a serious crime and offenders face fines of up to €17,000 and three years in jail if caught, but Agriculture Minister Sophocles Aletaris told an EU delegation concerned about environmental issues that even though “this practice is a disgrace for his country,” it is also deeply rooted in the Cypriot mentality and will be very difficult to eradicate.

Old habits

A new story in Cyprus Mail outraged local readers. MEP Cristina Guttierrez-Cortines agreed with Aletaris that “old habits are hard to break,” though she insisted that they are very worried about the birds.

In the past, ambelopoulia was a delicacy for poor people, but trapping the birds to supply restaurants that serve this dish has evolved into a money-making racket.

Aletaris told the EU delegation that last year 3,000 people caught trapping songbirds with mist nets and 25 restaurants found to be buying them have been prosecuted, but locals don’t believe enough is being done.

Enforcing the law in Cyprus

One anonymous reader wrote “And what punishment was meted out to these 3025 persons? A tap over the fingers? Just think, the government could have netted (no pun intended) over €50 million if the maximum fine were imposed – and others would be discouraged from doing the same.”

Another reader, Pete Adams, claims that the government should do more to enforce the law, “As far as enforcement goes,” he says, “was there not an incident recently where staff from the agriculture ministry or European commission were attacked by these poachers? If they ever got to court what happened? There’s absolutely no point having a maximum penalty unless it’s put use occasionally and that must include the forfeiture of all goods and establishments selling these animals.”

Incentive to catch the bad guys

BirdLife Cyprus has been monitoring the annual slaughter of songbirds and found that last year’s 2.8 million loss was the largest in five years. While many locals fear that corrupt government officials and police are enabling poachers, Alexey Golovanov takes a more forgiving view.

“I do not believe that police and game wardens are all corrupt,” wrote the  Managing Director & CEO at Arts, Arms & Antiques. “In many cases they are overworked and grossly underpaid. They should be entitled to a bonus (from the fine – that’s international practice) – as an incentive.”

More on Wildlife Conservation:

1 Million Migrating Songbirds Killed for a Pickled Dish in Cyprus

Thousands of Endangered Fruit Bats Gunned Down in Lebanon

Crazy Kuwaitis Use Shotguns to Kill 12 Flamingos

The post Killing Birds for Pickled Dish is a Disgrace, Says Cypriot Minister appeared first on Green Prophet.

Fishing is a time-honored Istanbul tradition. But to catch and sell fish, one must have a license nowadays. That doesn’t stop some from illegally trawling for fish in the Bosphorus, or the two seas that sandwich Istanbul. Today, one such trawler nearly took the life of a man who’s been campaigning against illegal fishing for years.

The attacker, reportedly from a trawling gang, came to a teahouse where Aslan was sitting and asked him to come outside so they could talk. They argued for a few minutes about Aslan’s opposition to trawling. Then the man pulled a gun on him, and fired — aiming to kill.

Two months previously, Aslan, who is head of a union of fishery associations, issued a report effectively declaring war against illegal fishermen. After this opening shot, he began to receive threats from some members of a trawling gang, culminating in the shooting at the teahouse.

The marine police and the coastguard, meanwhile, seem to have done little to help solve the proliferation of illegal fishermen in Istanbul’s waterways and seas.

Defne Koryürek is an environmental activist who is prominent in Turkey’s Slow Food movement as well as being known for helping fight against illegal fishing. According to facts she shared with Turkish media, the number of illegal trawlers in Istanbul has increased by 600 percent over the past year, from 50 to 300.

Koryürek has called on Turkey’s Interior Ministry to help solve the problem, which she says amounts to “banditry”. Unfortunately, as the trawlers become wealthier, they’ll only find it easier to pay fines or bribes to the officials who catch them.

:: Hurriyet Daily News

Read more about poaching in the Middle East:

Crazy Kuwaitis Use Shotguns To Kill 12 Flamingos
1 Million Migrating Songbirds Are Killed For Pickled Dish In Cyprus
Thai Migrant Workers Poach Wildlife For Food In Israel

Image via Yerel Gundem

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In response to yesterday’s post about the only two countries in the Middle East that offer wolves any kind of legal protection, a Kuwaiti reader forwarded a link to a story published online by Al Watan. A google translated version of the story goes like this: a young man went on a fishing trip with friends, carrying a shotgun, and was greeted by a lone wolf at the entrance of his tent one morning.

Abdullah Algelawi told the paper that the wolf or fox attacked, he wasn’t certain what kind of animal it was at first, so he proceeded to pump a pile of shotgun shells into it. Then he posed with the dead, bloodied Gray Wolf, sometimes hoisting it up, and proudly forwarded the following images to his local paper. 

It is illegal for Kuwaiti citizens or resident workers to own firearms. The Muslim World League reports that this law was put in place in 2005 after a surge of Al Qaeda violence. A similar law was passed in 1992 but lawmakers refused to extend it in 1994, claiming that gun ownership is a right.

A 2007 count of civilian firearms published by Cambridge University press reveals that the rate of private gun ownership in Kuwait amounts to 24.8 firearms per 100 people, and that there are approximately 630,000 civilian guns in the country.

Kuwaiti civilians are much better armed than their security forces, according to a small arms survey published by Oxford University Press in 2006, which reveals that Kuwait’s defense forces possessed roughly 30,000 guns that year, while the police had only 8,358.

Killing animals with illegal weapons appears to be something of a pastime for certain sectors of Kuwait society.

Just a couple of weeks ago we published a disturbing story about a group of yahoos that shot and killed a dozen flamingoes and injured two, which conservationists working for K’S PATH (Kuwait Society For the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat) tried in vain to save.

While Bedouin folklore perpetuates the notion that wolves are ruthless killing machines and desert dwellers believe wolves are associated with ghosts or jinn, it’s hard to understand the threat posed by flamingoes.

Another reader from southern Saudi Arabia, Ahmed, lives in the mountains between Baha and Abah. He said that he has seen many wolves in the wild, but “sadly people carry guns just to kill them wherever they find them to protect their sheep and goats.” He adds that, “many times we see dead wolves were hanged to trees … just to show other people that someone killed a wolf.”

Ahmed recommends that people who care about wolves and the wild should contact government officials, who in turn should give financial support to locals who have sheep so that they can keep their animals in protected areas.

He believes that this action will assuage their fear of wolves snatching their goats and camels, and in turn retalitory killings will be reduced.

The Managing Director of K’S PATH, John Peaveler explained that “we are working with Kuwait Oil Company, who owns and administers the nature preserve [where the flamingos were shot last month], to prevent poaching in the area. However, we cannot make all of the necessary changes that will curb the tide of habitat destruction and eradication of wildlife currently effecting Kuwait without additional support.”

If you would like to see an end to these senseless killings, please contact John via john@kspath.org.

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One songbird is illegally trapped or killed every four seconds to provide residents of Cyprus with ingredients for a dish called ambelopoulia, according to Wildlife Extra. Quoting Tim Stowe, the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird’s (RSPB) international director, the online wildlife news publication reports that this mass slaughter takes place twice every year despite European, Cypriot, and Sovereign Base Area law that prohibits either trapping or killing wild birds.

Often not far from popular tourist destinations, trappers use mist nets and lime sticks to catch mostly whitethroats and blackcaps. They then sell the birds to restaurants, where they are either boiled or pickled. Since the beginning of September, this fate has befallen more than one million songbirds on their annual migration between Europe and Africa.

BirdLife Cyprus has been monitoring the situation in Cyprus since the annual bird-trapping season started in September. They are in the process of gathering signatures in order to pressure local ministers to step up their efforts to cull this banned practice.

Pickled birds for a song. Watch this video on how it’s done:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zdDBAp6cI&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]

More than 11,000 people have already added their signatures to the petition.

Ten days ago, Cyprus Mail reported that members of the anti-poaching unit of the Cypriot Police raided 13 homes throughout Aradippou, Maroni and Lefkara and arrested 6 people who had stored a total of 550 protected wild songbirds.

Despite these important arrests, RSPB is concerned that if the local authorities don’t step up their anti-poaching enforcement program, especially to target restaurants that serve ambelopoulia, the number of songbirds that are plucked out the sky could reach epic proportions.

The birds are taken from areas that are popular among tourists, including Ayia Napa, and inside UK-administered Sovereign Base Areas such as Dhekelia, according to WD.

BirdLife Cyprus stresses that non-selective trapping on this scale – whereby hundreds of thousands of bird species that are not good for pickling also get caught in the nets – is “ecologically disastrous” and needs to be addressed urgently.

:: Wildlife Direct

More on birdlife conservation in the Middle East and Mediterranean:
Nature Iraq Promotes World Migratory Day
Birds in Iran Migrate to less Polluted Cities
One Vulture’s Tagged Migration or Zionist Plot?

image via 10000 birds

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Red Sea sharks are threatened by Yemenese poachers who sell their fins to Asia for a fit price. But it turns out that Persian Gulf shark species are also vulnerable. So much so that conservationists have advised regional environmental groups and governments to set aside sanctuaries that will protect them.

As predators, sharks play an essential role in any marine ecosystem. Without them, prey are able to proliferate, in turn eradicating food lower on the chain. Failure to institute substantial measures to protect Gulf sharks would lead to a serious imbalance, and harm the economics of people who rely on it.Gulf News reports that international experts gathered in Abu Dhabi last week at the Marine Conservation Forum 2010 to discuss the 25 shark and other species in the Gulf that require urgent attention, but which are not currently protected by international treaties.

Governments and environmentalists were warned that in the North Atlantic, where shark numbers have declined precipitously, populations of rays exploded. They in turn gobbled up the scallops on which local fishermen relied for an income.

Susan Lieberman from the Environmental Pew Group said evidence suggests that Gulf sharks are also being fished for their fins for a soup that has no nutritional value. Annually, the ecological services of 73 million sharks are wrested from oceans and seas for what certain Asian populations consider a delicacy.

In the Gulf, reef sharks are especially susceptible to harm. If they go, the health of the entire coral reef system would be in peril. Because sharks do not produce young until after 12 to 13 years, their populations are not easily revived. Setting aside sanctuaries in the Gulf would go a long way to ensure their propagation.

:: Gulf News

More shark news from the Middle East:

Protection Legislation Endangers Red Sea Sharks

Three Russian Red Sea Snorkelers Attacked By White-Tip Shark

Egyptian Park Authorities Killed Wrong Sharks After Red Sea Attacks

image via scubacayman88

The post 25 Shark Species In Persian Gulf Need Urgent Protection appeared first on Green Prophet.

What eventually became The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) began with fits and starts in the early 20th century. Then the Nazis and disturbing fellows like Reinhard Heydrick, Chief Executor of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” took control and diluted its vigor as a non-partisan organization devoted to rooting out international crime.

After 1945, Interpol rose up from the ashes and has since become the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations. Such villainy as child pornography, drug and human trafficking, and genocide all fall under their purview. In a sign of just how serious they are, during the recent 79th General Assembly in Qatar, Interpol resolved to place a renewed emphasis on “green crimes.”

Until now, despite certain legal frameworks such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), environmental crimes have not been as well regulated as others.

“Because of poor monitoring, relatively low risks and the prospects of big money, the environment has become a safe target for crime gangs whose more traditional activities include crimes such as drug trafficking and extortion,” according to AFP journalist Michel Moutot.

Species are going extinct at the fastest rate since the dinosaurs walked the planet due in large measure to crime syndicates that are making a killing (not punny?) from the proceeds of animal parts, ivory, and horns. In the Middle East, for example, Peregrine Falcons are prized for sport, though it is illegal to engage in their trade, and Yemeni fishermen are notorious for hacking off shark fins in the Red Sea.

A former police officer, Scotsman John Sellar is pleased with the long-awaited resolution.

“People don’t imagine the kind of money involved in wildlife trafficking. They still too often believe that local poachers go out and shoot whatever they can find, when in fact you have real networks of professional criminals getting organised to kill and ship wildlife on a massive scale,” Sellar told AFP.

CITES secretary general John Scanlon said the resolution “sends a very strong message to those who seek to rob countries of their natural resources that the global law enforcement community recognises that it must work together, led by Interpol, to bring these environmental criminals to justice,” according to Mr. Moutot.

Like drug trafficking, environmental crimes cross borders and therefore require international cooperation in order to bring their perpetrators to justice. Interpol is well equipped to provide administrative assistance to local law enforcement officials and facilitate liaisons across jurisdictions. But their work is not easy.

Mr. Moutot wrote that “in 2005, the Australian Navy intercepted a European-flagged ship that was fishing for Patagonian toothfish, a critically endangered and rare species worth a fortune on the black market.”

“The Australian navy pursued these people from the coast of Australia half way to South Africa and caught them. It indicates how much money is involved: these people are ready to go all the way down to the other side of the earth to harvest these fish,” the Head of Interpol’s Environmental Crime Program, David Higgins, told AFP.

With so much money to gain, and a history of poor enforcement, criminals are willing to risk being captured (and relegated to a prison cell for which the keys are miraculously lost?) Their time may be up.

:: AFP

More on environmental crimes:

Man Arrested Attempting To Smuggle “Golden” Falcon Eggs

Endangered Baboons and Hyenas Rescued from Private Home in Abu Dhabi

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