Forging a way forward in Lebanon: this week, CABS members traveled to West Bekka, Lebanon to meet with our partners from Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (Birdlife Lebanon), Middle Eastern Sustainable Hunting Centre (MESHC) and the Association for Bird Conservation in Lebanon جمعية حماية الطيور في لبنان (ABCL). The purpose of the meeting was to agree on common goals and cement a fresh bird protection strategy for the upcoming autumn migration and open hunting season.
Several bird guard teams will be deployed across key bottleneck areas for bird migration to monitor legal hunting and record/report incidents of illegal poaching.
This will be our biggest ever bird protection operation in Lebanon, with support from the President, chiefs of Police and the Internal Security Forces. Each year, an estimated 3 million protected birds are illegal killed and/or trapped as they cross the eastern flyway attempting to reach wintering areas in Africa. We will also have a strong focus on monitoring the migration for Lesser Spotted Eagles; which are particularly vulnerable and a species of high conservation concern.
