- Tens of thousands of rare birds are being netted and
killed in Egypt despite a ban on the trapping of endangered species.
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- Every October, when birds such as corncrakes, warblers
and shrikes migrate south to their wintering grounds in eastern and southern
Africa, 30 foot-high fishing nets are erected along the Egyptian coast
to catch them as they cross into Africa from the Mediterranean.
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- Made of gossamer-thin filament and stretching for hundreds
of miles, these nets pose a deadly obstacle. Andrew Grieve, the chairman
of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East, estimates that more than
60 million birds are caught in this way every autumn.
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- Under the Bonn Conservation Convention of 1979, the Egyptian
Government is legally bound to stop any practice that endangers rare birds.
But Grieve and other conservationists say it is not doing enough.
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- "More birds are killed in Egypt than in any other
country in the world," he says.
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- Egypt is a vital stopping-off point for migrating birds
because the Nile Valley is the only significant source of water and insect
life in northern Africa. "These birds cannot alter their route because
they have to avoid the desert," says Grieve.
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- The main target of the hunters who collect the birds
from the nets is wild quail, regarded as a delicacy in Egypt. But the nets
also ensnare hundreds of other species. Apart from valuable catches such
as saker and peregrine falcons (which are sold for hundreds of pounds to
Saudi Arabians who use them to hunt desert hares), all the birds are killed
and eaten.
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- But conservationists fear the practice could lead to
many species becoming extinct. Grieve says that corncrakes, wrynecks, redstarts
and several species of warbler, bunting, shrike and flycatcher are all
in danger. Two years ago he set up a program to help local bird-hunters
to spot the difference between quail and corncrakes, but it failed through
lack of local interest.
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- The Egyptian government has tried to stop endangered
birds from being netted by forcing hunters to obtain permits and issuing
a list of birds that must be released if caught. It has also passed several
laws limiting the size and height of the nets.
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- But these laws are not being enforced even in nature
reserves and military areas. In Rosetta, a large town overlooking the mouth
of the Nile, restaurants serve a bewildering range of tiny birds including
the endangered red-backed shrike and corncrake.
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- "They are delicious," says a local restaurant
owner. "You put them in the oven for 20 minutes with some onion and
thyme and then swallow them whole " bones and all."
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- One young bird-seller proudly displays a pallid harrier
" an extremely rare bird of prey whose population has fallen dramatically
over the past decade thanks to netting and habitat loss in Eastern Europe.
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- Ornithologists have called for an outright ban on bird-netting.
But Dr Mustafa Fouad, head of the nature preservation unit at the Egyptian
Environment Ministry, says that this would be very difficult. "For
many people, bird netting is their only source of income during the autumn.
You cannot just ban netting overnight."
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- Visitors to Rosetta would find it hard to disagree. Once
one of the busiest trading ports in the eastern Mediterranean, this town
of 200,000 people is now a dirty, poverty-stricken place.
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- As the fishing is not what it once was, some locals have
turned to the more lucrative business of smuggling immigrants. Every month
dozens of asylum-seekers and economic migrants leave Rosetta in small boats,
hoping to make it to Italy or Greece. It is also one of the main entry
points into Egypt for Central Asian heroin and Lebanese hashish.
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- Rosetta,s decline is the more poignant when you consider
its archaeological past. It was in Rosetta in 1799 that Napoleon,s archaeologists
discovered the stone tablet that enabled them to decipher hieroglyphics
for the first time. The Rosetta stone was seized by Nelson,s fleet two
years later and is now in the British Museum.
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- Faced with mounting criticism of its conservation record,
the Egyptian Government is trying to find ways to persuade locals to stop
netting. "We are hoping to set up handicraft organizations in the
area so that they can earn their livings in other ways," says Fouad.
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- However, the inhabitants of Rosetta are very proud of
their centuries-old tradition and show no signs of backing down.
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- "I have been doing it all my life and I will not
stop now," says Karim Mohammed, a local hunter. "My grandfather
taught my father. My father taught me. When my son is old enough, I will
teach him too."
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