The erection of fence and sheds that was planned to take place at Akrotiri Marsh as part of the Darwin project during March will be taking place during April and early May due to some unforeseen delays in preparatory procedures.

BirdLife Cyprus volunteers are out and about with their binoculars and clip-boards, recording birds across the island as our breeding season programmes of systematic monitoring get into full swing. In all, some 30 volunteer bird recorders – including some office staff and Shannon O’Grady, a full-time survey volunteer over from the UK - are undertaking surveys for common breeding birds, nocturnal birds and wetland birds. As the season progresses, Roller surveys, Atlas surveys, Calandra Lark and Audouin’s Gull surveys will be added to the effort.

On Sunday, 20 March 2016, BirdLife Cyprus held its Annual General Meeting at the Akrotiri Environmental Center in Akrotiri, Limassol. The AGM was attended by a total of 43 people who were informed about BirdLife Cyprus’ activities for 2015 and were presented the workplan and budget for 2016.

BirdLife Cyprus is happy to welcome Elena Markitani and Yiannis Christodoulides to its team and wishes them good luck and every success in their new role!

One of the decisions of the Ministerial Council on the Akamas issue was the creation of a National Forest Park in the area, which will include the current national forest and all the appropriate public land of the Akamas Natura 2000 site. Four ENGOs, including BirdLife Cyprus, met with the Director of the Department of Forests, Mr Takis Tsintides on16 March 2016 to discuss this issue. During the meeting ENGOS presented their views on the initial boundaries of the Akamas National Forest Park as well as our request for the inclusion of all the public land of Akamas into the National Forest Park, and not just the ‘appropriate public land’. Furthermore, we had a general discussion on the management of Natura 2000 sites. Following the meeting, BirdLife Cyprus also sent a detailed letter with our position.

‘Singing for Akamas’ a one day event, was organised by the ‘Cyprus Natural Coastline’ initiative, ‘Limassol Initiative for Akamas’ and ‘Save Akamas/ Save Cyprus’ on Sunday 27 March 2016. The event took place at the amphitheatre of Molos (Limassol), between 12:00 - 22:00 with 14 local bands and DJs participating.The event was organised following the recent decisions of the Ministerial Council on the Akamas issue, in an effort to oppose them and also to raise awareness about the need for protection of Akamas.

BirdLife Cyprus completed its report with the latest findings of the on-going and systematic surveillance programme on illegal bird trapping for the autumn 2015 season. Based on the analysis of the survey data, 19km of net rides were active during the autumn season of 2015 within the survey area covering Larnaca – Famagusta and Ayios Theodoros – Maroni areas and more than 5,300 limesticks were confiscated by enforcement agencies. Based on the data gathered, BirdLife Cyprus estimates that over 2 million birds could have been killed across the whole of Cyprus in autumn 2015 from this illegal activity. Mist netting activity for autumn 2015 has decreased by 13% compared to 2002, a positive outcome comparing to the record breaking levels recorded in autumn 2014. 

BirdLife Cyprus participated at the 3rd European Workshop on Environmental Crime, organised by SEO (BirdLife in Spain) and RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) on 26 February 2016 in Edinburgh, UK. The workshop focused on Habitat Destruction. SEO (BirdLife in Spain) and RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) are implementing a project to create a European Network against Environmental Crime among BirdLife Europe partners. The aim of this project is the implementation of Directive 2008/99/EC for the protection of the environment through criminal law and also the facilitation of the work of EU BirdLife Partners in fighting environmental crimes, using the Directive.

On 29 February 2016, just before the start of the spring survey season, volunteers in our bird monitoring programmes got together at Kritou Terra, Paphos, to review progress of our on-going schemes to keep track of the island’s birds.

Grazing is one of the most important management tools for the conservation of Akrotiri Marsh. To enhance grazing and improve grazing opportunities, the Darwin project “Akrotiri Marsh Restoration: a flagship wetland in the Cyprus SBAs” will install a fence and build cattle sheds on site during March 2016.