More than 30 delegates from conservation NGOs and other organisations from 24 countries, such as Spain and the UK, as well as countries of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, met for a Mediterranean Flyway Conservation Network workshop organised in Lisbon (Portugal) by BirdLife International and hosted by SPEA (BirdLife in Portugal). The workshop titled ‘Mitigating the effects of wind farms and power lines on birds’ was supported by the MAVA Foundation and took place on 24 – 25 February 2016. BirdLife Cyprus participated at this workshop with one delegate.

BirdLife Cyprus and its contract partner, consultants IACO Environmental, have entered the second and final round of consultations with local communities over management plans for NATURA 2000 sites for birds. In total, 30 village meetings will take place across all districts over the 5 months from February to June 2016. The discussions aim at engaging local residents in the drawing up of management plans for the 30 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) designated for birds across Cyprus, a major project BirdLife Cyprus and IACO are tasked to complete before the end of this year.

BirdLife Cyprus is organizing a workshop for IBA Caretakers on the weekend of 23 -24 April 2016 at Droushia Heights Hotel, in Pafos. IBA Caretakers have already been invited but if you haven’t expressed interest so far, please do so by contacting BirdLife Cyprus.

The European Parliament stood up to defend key EU nature laws in a vote at its plenary session in Strasbourg yesterday. 

Award winning wildlife photographers Pam and Eddy Lane will be giving a talk next Wednesday, 3 February 2016, titled ‘In the Footsteps of Shackleton’, combining images from their two major expeditions to the South Atlantic where they visit the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica and show a variety of habitats, vast landscapes and exceptional wildlife. Among them, sites that polar explorer Ernest Shackleton visited during his epic expedition of 1914 to 1916.

It was with great pleasure that we were informed of the official designation of five Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) by the Administration of the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. The official designation was announced in the SBA gazette on 30 December 2015. The announcement was preceded by a public consultation on the proposals which ended in July 2015. BirdLife Cyprus sent its comments on the draft proposals in June 2015.

Slowly but surely days are becoming longer – an undeniable sign that Spring Alive is just round the corner and soon we will be observing the silhouettes of the first migrants in the sky over Europe.

New bird species are rarely discovered nowadays. Since 2000, five new species are discovered every year on average, most of which in South America.

The EU Commission has given its final and categorical opinion regarding the proposed derogation for the selective hunting of ambelopoulia, the so called ‘alternative plan’, which the Cyprus Government included unilaterally in the Strategic Plan against illegal bird trapping which was approved last May 2015. According to a newspaper article (2 January 2016), Mr Enrico Brivio, a press officer of the Commission, highlighted that ‘...the Commission is concerned about the inclusion of this ‘alternative plan’, which creates the possibility for granting derogations for bird trapping.This is a measure that cannot be accepted according to the EU legislation...’.