Dear Mr. President, Your Excellency General Michel Naim Aoun,
I am writting to You in the name of the Association of citizens “Taraš storks” and people of the Serbian village of Taraš, which has the title of European Stork Village for the 2015. Year.
Spring migration is almost to start and we are deeply worried for the safety of the birds whose return to Europe, especially for the white storks. We are worried because high rates of poaching in Lebanon which includes many species of birds including the white storks, which are strictly protected in our country.
One of the largest colonies of white storks in Serbia is nesting in our village- Taraš. The children here grow up with these beautiful birds and love them dearly . The relationship between people and white storks is really special, touching. We are all very happy when they start to coming back in early March. This is the reason why we organizing a celebration of this event in cooperation with the local primary school. Pupils and children are especially looking forward to this nice event. This year again, we are eagerly waiting to see will Prvoje (meaning The First One ),our most popular male stork, come back first once again. He became famous for the fact that in the previous 5 years he was always the first stork that returned to his nest. That is why we gave him the name Prvoje, because that name literally describes someone who likes to be first.In June, a big event is dedicated to the white storks and it bears the name “Stork days”. And there is also the celebration of the official departure to warmer climes at Africa at the end of the summer.
A lot has been done to protect white storks from electric shocks by installing platforms for nesting, and there is a constant work on the protection of habitats around the village, Huge love with great effort and work has been invested in preserving the population of white storks. It’s really sad when we hear that poachers in Lebanon have continued to kill birds that it is prohibited to hunt, even before the opening of the hunting season and in disturbingly large numbers – merely for fun.
That is why we are sending You this appeal, and kindly asking You, Mr. President, to ensure that, this spring, shooting at protected species will be prevented and that the birds will have full protection while flying over Lebanon, as they should have according to the Law.
Dear Mr. President, please make the sky over Lebanon safe for storks and other migratory birds!
We thank You in advance.
Aleksandra Marovac Cucić
President of the Assocciation of Citizen “Taraš storks”
