A strong resolution of Conclusions & Recommendations has been released by the European hunting community at the Council of Europe Conference on the Illegal Killing of Birds held in Cyprus from 6-8 July.

The issue of illegal killing of birds is a widespread concern but is not and should not be largely linked to hunting or hunters. It is a problem with a variety of motives, primarily illegal trade and smuggling, persecution (for competition or commercial reasons), indirect killing through poisoned baits – all committed by a large variety of actors.

Despite the considerable positive contributions of Europe’s 7 million hunters to the conservation of nature and wildlife, this unfortunate and untenable association jeopardises the reputation of all sustainable hunters, compromising one of the strongest and most experienced support groups of nature and wildlife at a crucial time in Europe’s nature when collaboration is key.

Through their rural roots and conservation ethics, hunters and hunting organisations are in a unique position to assist the relevant authorities in reducing the practice of illegal killing of birds. It is for this reason that a delegation of high-level FACE Members is attending this Conference to provide a European hunters’ perspective to this complex and deeply social problem and share their expertise in biological, social and legislative aspects.

There are many examples of hunters’ efforts as they act to defend their interests: in countries as diverse as Germany and Malta, hunters cooperate with wildlife authorities to combat illegal killing. In other cases such as Greece, hunters pay from their own resources the employment of 300 game wardens that carry out many additional functions related to wider nature conservation. 

These Conclusions & Recommendations outline FACE’s absolute continued commitment to scale up efforts against illegal killing of birds and other wildlife to a European level. FACE has a long-standing policy zero-tolerance towards illegal killing, as it is simply not hunting.