Four hours of fieldwork in northern Lebanon removed 24,750 square metres of trapping nets—building on an earlier operation in the northern Bekaa and showing what coordinated action can achieve for bird protection.
Across an orchard, the distance between two trees should be open space. When illegal trapping nets fill that space, a landscape that offers birds food and shelter becomes a trap.
In northern Lebanon, a joint enforcement operation has helped reopen that space. The Internal Security Forces’ (ISF) North Investigation Detachment, working with the Anti-Poaching Unit’s (APU) Joint Operations Team, removed 24,750 square metres of illegal bird-trapping nets in just four hours.
The operation followed the removal of another 38,280 square metres in the northern Bekaa, bringing the combined area of nets dismantled to 63,030 square metres—more than six hectares.
That figure measures the trapping infrastructure removed. The number of birds spared cannot be calculated from the information available. Yet every dismantled installation removes a threat from the landscape.
Four Hours Behind a Significant Result
The work was physically demanding. Nets were densely distributed among orchard trees, with some installed at considerable heights. Removing them required sustained effort and close coordination on the ground.
The northern operation combined field and intelligence support from the APU Joint Operations Team with the enforcement capacity of the ISF. It was coordinated with the head of the Command and Control Room for northern Lebanon, the head of the North Investigation Detachment and officers from the detachment.
The participating APU team brought together the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Hunting and Anti-Poaching (MECSHAP) and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS). In the earlier Bekaa operation, the team worked with the ISF’s Bekaa Investigation Detachment.
The results give a concrete expression to a familiar conservation principle: cooperation matters most when it translates into action in the field.
Protecting the Spaces Between Protected Areas
These operations also bring attention to the wider landscape in which conservation takes place. Birds move through orchards, farmland and village surroundings. Their protection depends on what happens in these everyday spaces, alongside the management of designated conservation sites.
This is where enforcement and community stewardship can reinforce one another. Removing nets addresses an immediate threat. Building local support for bird protection helps create the conditions for that progress to last.
Making the Next Count Smaller
The combined total of 63,030 square metres is a significant achievement for the teams involved. It also reveals the scale of the trapping infrastructure they encountered.
Lasting progress will depend on follow-up: whether cleared locations remain free of nets, whether installations reappear elsewhere, and whether cooperation between enforcement teams and local communities continues.
For now, the outcome is tangible. Across two regions, extensive stretches of illegal netting have been taken down. The next measure of success will be keeping those spaces open.
