The owner of a fenced plot in the Larnaca district has been reported seven times in a year for illegally trapping wild birds. The case comes as parliament’s Environment Committee discusses the work of the police anti-poaching squad on Wednesday.
On Sunday, officers from the Anti-Poaching Squad of the Rapid Response Motorised Unit (MMAD) found three devices mimicking bird calls and seven trapping nets in use in an area of the Larnaca district where hunting is banned, police said.
The nets held 103 live wild birds, which officers released, and 12 dead ones. According to sources speaking to Phileleftheros, the squad had already reported the owner of a fenced plot in the same area six times between early October 2025 and mid-September 2026.
In Phileleftheros’s assessment, the case shows that out-of-court fines and existing penalties do not deter organised rings that make huge profits from exploiting wildlife. It also points to wider problems in the fight against poaching in Cyprus:
- fines that are low, and so no deterrent, compared with what wildlife crime rings earn
- repeat offenders not being taken to court, although the law allows prison sentences of up to three years
- too little investigation of possible proceeds of crime
At the same time, the squad appears to be systematically reporting large-scale, professional trappers.
The need for tougher measures, for sending repeat offenders to court and for strengthening enforcement is being raised at Wednesday’s committee session. T
he committee is expected to continue discussing an item titled ‘The effects of the action of specific activist organisations and activists active in the environmental sector and the assessment of the need to take measures to address the phenomenon‘. It was registered on July 1, 2026, at the proposal of ELAM MPs Linos Papayiannis and Linos Ioannis Hadjigeorgiou.
A second item has been added to the agenda: ‘The operation and further strengthening of the Anti-Poaching Squad and the need to take effective measures to prevent and combat poaching’. The committee itself registered that item on January 26, 2022.
Earlier cases
On October 3, 2025, police searched a house in Dali, in the Nicosia district, and a fenced plot in Agios Theodoros, in the Larnaca district, under a court warrant. At the house they seized, among other items, five trapping nets, 952 dead wild birds and 817 white plastic containers used for packing birds. At the plot they seized 11 set nets holding 297 wild birds, of which 149 were dead and 147 were released alive, as well as two devices mimicking bird calls.
During that search, a man in a hood entered the plot and tried to run when he saw police. Officers restrained and searched him, found cannabis, and arrested him. In a vehicle he had allegedly been driving earlier, police seized a single-barrel shotgun, 181 cartridges for a double-barrelled shotgun, two call-mimicking devices and two dead wild birds. Officers also stopped a car belonging to another person outside the plot and seized 30 double-barrelled shotgun cartridges and three knives. That person was also arrested.
Phileleftheros reported on October 20, 2025, that the owner of the Dali house was fined 17,000 euros out of court. The owner of the Agios Theodoros plot was fined 13,000 euros.
On October 12, 2025, police searched a fenced orchard in the Larnaca district during a coordinated operation. They found six set nets holding 83 live wild birds, which were released, and seized 87 dead birds, two nets, an improvised call device connected to an amplifier and two loudspeakers, and a car battery. The owner, who was at the site, was fined out of court.
On October 25, 2025, police searched a fenced field in the Larnaca district and found 11 nets, seven of them set, seven dead wild birds and two devices emitting bird calls. Officers from the Game and Fauna Service were called to the scene, and 26 birds were released from the set nets. The owner was fined out of court.
On November 2, 2025, according to sources speaking to Phileleftheros, 10 trapping nets were found and seized at the same fenced orchard, and the owner was fined again.
On September 8, 2026, the Anti-Poaching Squad found a call-mimicking device and five trapping nets in use in an area of the Larnaca district where hunting is banned. The nets held 17 live wild birds, which were released. The owner was traced and, when questioned, admitted the offences. Police said on September 12 that Kofinou Regional Police Station, together with the Game and Fauna Service, had fined the owner 13,500 euros out of court.
On September 16, 2026, according to sources speaking to Phileleftheros, two trapping nets were found and seized at the same orchard, and the owner was fined another 5,000 euros.
According to Phileleftheros, dozens of trapping nets, several other illegal trapping devices and hundreds of dead and live wild birds were found in the same person’s possession across the seven reports.
Background
The ELAM item has divided parliament. ELAM, DISY and DIKO backed registering it, AKEL and ALMA voted against, and Direct Democracy Cyprus took no position. Environmental groups have said the item targets anti-poaching activists, in particular the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), which works with the authorities to find illegal traps and nets.
After the committee’s previous session on the item, BirdLife Cyprus said police and the Game and Fauna Service had told MPs that hunters had never filed an official complaint about harassment by environmental activists. BirdLife also said targeted operations by police and the Game and Fauna Service in autumn 2025 alone led to fines of more than 157,000 euros in cases of organised illegal trapping.
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