A young man wearing a yellow balaclava walks aggressively towards a group of activists from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (Cabs) somewhere in the hills of Maroni in the Larnaca area. He approaches the vehicle they have locked themselves in, waves his arms threateningly and starts yelling at them and their security guard.
“Go home,” he shouts to the bird protectionists who are filming the scene from inside the car.
The man is part of the crew of one of Cyprus’ major poachers, Akas, who allegedly kills an estimated 500 to 1,000 songbirds each day during autumn, amounting to 35,000 to 70,000 in total from September to November.
Cabs describe Akas as violent and say that he has been operating with his own “gang” of around seven people in the area for several years.
This year, they have shown particular hostility towards the activists.
Thugs, threats and thousands of killed birds
The man is soon joined by two colleagues, who jump out of the two off-roaders with which they had blocked the road in an attempt to scare the activists away.
With their face coverings and menacing gestures, the three make a stark contrast to the almost untouched beauty of the surrounding landscape.
The activists remain in their car, accompanied by security.
“Do we leave, or do we stay?” one of the activists asks.
The security, seemingly intimidated, deems the situation too dangerous and decides it’s time to leave.
At some point, the police, whom the activists had called earlier, arrive and escort the bird protectionists from the scene. The security guard never joins the group again.
The incident constitutes one of the more severe of the numerous intimidation attempts by the poachers, though some activists describe even having received death threats in the past.
“It gets more and more intense every year,” a Cypriot Cabs activist, who wished not to be named due to fear of the poachers, tells the Cyprus Mail.
Andrea Rutigliano, another Cabs activist from Italy, has been campaigning on the island for over 15 years. He has participated in several Cabs missions in Lebanon, Italy and Malta and says poachers in Cyprus are notably more aggressive than those in other countries.
“Cyprus stands out for the lack of and inadequate enforcement, with too few searches and patrols, no real raids, (…) and also because the violence used by trappers is higher than in other countries,” he says.
Additionally, the trapping business in Cyprus involves more money than in other countries, Rutigliano says.
As with any illegal industry, it is hard to get an accurate estimate on how much money is involved in Cyprus’ trapping “industry”. However, calculations based on figures gathered by activists over the years provide an indication of the scale of the poaching business on the island.
According to Cabs, the trappers sell the birds to restaurants or private individuals for around €6 each.
With Akas and his men allegedly killing up to 70,000 birds per season, this amounts to around €420,000 – a considerable sum for relatively non-demanding “work” that includes setting up nets or limesticks, and waking up early for eight to ten weeks per year.
Restaurants and taverns then illegally serve birds, called ambelopoulia, as a delicacy for around €100 to 120 per plate, featuring up to 12 birds.
The game and fauna service estimates the value of the trapping business at around €10 million per year.
Given these figures, it’s easy to understand the aggression displayed by the poachers.
Poaching remains an attractive business
“There is an increase in trapping both in the British bases and in the Republic in terms of nets and limesticks, and more requests for ambelopoulia on the market,” says Rutigliano.
The protection and development of game and wild birds law of 1974, 39/1974, prohibits the trapping and offering of wild birds in restaurants, as well as the use of traps, light projectors and other luring methods.
These include illegal electronic calling devices that imitate the calls of migrating birds, operated at night to lure the birds into the trapping sites. According to a recent study, the use of these devices increases the number of individuals of the target species caught, mostly blackcaps, by around 11 times, and also significantly increases bycatch.
After catching the birds, the trappers remove them from the nets or limesticks and bite their necks to kill them. The Cyprus Mail, joining the activists on one of the morning missions, has seen live footage of this practice.
A matter of legislation and enforcement
The Republic’s legislation on trapping is unambiguous, but the activists criticise lash law enforcement, as underpinned by BirdLife’s most recent report on illegal bird trapping in Cyprus published in February 2025.
BirdLife found that in 2024, mist net trapping within the Republic has increased by 76 per cent compared to autumn 2023, marking the highest levels since 2014.
Meanwhile, trapping in the area of the British bases decreased by 22 per cent.
“We consider that the decrease recorded was due to the increased police resources that the SBA [British bases] administration and police allocated to their anti-poaching unit for this season,” BirdLife wrote.
The bases’ anti-poaching unit, established in 2016, consists of 10 officers, equipped with drones, hidden cameras and night vision goggles.
“The SBA police respond proactively to any identified bird trapping cases, whether from our partners in BirdLife Cyprus and Cabs, or from our own intelligence unit,” says the base’s spokesperson.
Additionally, the unit can request support from further 60 police officers in the eastern base areas.
The Republic’s anti-poaching unit, on the other hand, established in 2007, was dissolved in 2019 and reestablished in 2023. Cabs says that until 2017, they worked together with the unit successfully, but that recent attempts to reestablish the cooperation have not been met with interest.
According to a recent statement by environment commissioner Antonia Theodosiou, the unit comprises of one officer, two sergeants and 10 police officers.
The unit is responsible for the around 6,000 square kilometres the Republic spans.
Cyprus features over 2,800 poaching sites
Cabs has identified more than 2,800 poaching sites all over the island, 120 to 150 of which were active in the current poaching season.
The group reports between 50 to 60 people for poaching each year.
Rutigliano says this year, police carried out four raids of poachers, three at Akas’ place and one of another major poacher, Trikkis.
In the area of the bases, five cases for the illegal use of mist nets and two for the poaching of quails have been reported since August 1.
Properly combating the illegal trapping of songbirds, BirdLife notes in its latest report, will require the government to implement a series of targeted measures.
One of the main challenges is the sheer number of poaching sites, requiring constant monitoring, carried out daily by activists from 1am to 11am, using cameras and drones to document activity and alert local police, who, they say, are often slow to respond.
Even when authorities act, enforcement remains reportedly weak. While mist-netting fines start at €2,000, penalties for lime sticks in the Republic begin at just €200 for up to 50 birds – an amount BirdLife says no longer deters offenders. The group is calling for fines of €2,000 per bird.
In fact, many cases end in out-of-court settlements, with sums that bear little relation to the profits poachers make if they go undetected.
They call for staffing up of the anti-poaching unit, closer cooperation between police and the game and fauna service, increased enforcement against restaurants serving ambelopoulia, and suggest reestablishing the collaboration with NGOs.
‘A culture of intimidation’
Currently, much of the monitoring is conducted by activists, with Cabs sending up to 12 people to the island each autumn.
It seems like a big effort to have people from Italy, the UK, and other countries come to the island for monitoring, but there is a reason the Cabs team currently only features one Cypriot.
“The lack of activists in Cyprus is because our job means sacrificing sleep and facing dangerous situations (…) and the fear and intimidation atmosphere around trapping here,” Rutigliano says.
He adds that even the most committed Cypriot activists have become scared of trappers threatening to find and harm or even kill them.
“The trappers feel immune and become more violent towards those who try to disrupt their illegal activity,” he adds.
This, it seems, sums up precisely what continues to shroud Cyprus’ ongoing “war on wings”.
