As part of our effort to curb the devastating damage wreaked by the illegal killing of birds, The Anti-Poaching Unit (APU) of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) and the Middle East Center for Sustainable Hunting (MESHC) organized a field investigation against limesticks hunting in Mount Lebanon
Although the widespread shooting of legally protected birds in Lebanon is increasingly being put under the international spotlight; the scale of songbird trapping in the country is less well documented.
In Barja- Mount Lebanon there is a ‘tradition’ of catching songbirds with nets and limesticks to meet the demand for this so-called delicacy. Our team succeeds in removing the limesticks in the area and many songbirds were saved.
The active illegal trapping site was reported by a sustainable hunter with 40 set limesticks freshly prepared in a bundle nearby. Several birds were found stuck to the sticks and those that could be saved were carefully cleaned up and released.
The anti-poaching project in Lebanon is based on partnership and cooperation between MESHC and SPNL on the one hand, and between SPNL and the MSB – Migratory Soaring Birds Project funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the project to fight illegal hunting funded by MAVA, and the support of the EV New LIFE project, under the EU fund, on the other hand.
