GRETA SANTAGATA

Illegal trapping of Birds in Sardinia

 

 

The illegal trapping of wild birds is still a very serious and seldom talked about issue in most Mediterranean countries. 8 million birds are thoughts to be shot and trapped each year, in the name of old traditions that find no reason to exist in the current times. Sardinia (Italy) is one of the hotspots of bird poaching in Europe, the graveyard for 300,000 songbirds each year. Blackbirds and thrushes are mostly targeted, caught and sold as a delicacy over the Christmas period, but many other migrants and protected species often fall victim of these unselective traps.

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Thankfully bird charities like LIPU (Italian League for the Protection of Birds) have been fighting poaching for over a decade, both on the ground, finding and dismantling traps, and from within, educating the young and helping local authorities in the arrests.

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Oropendola Productions was commissioned this documentary by the EU LIFE fund and I contributed to both the filming and editing.