GRETA SANTAGATA

Environmental activist and filmmaker

Last day of the CABS anti-poaching camp in Cyprus

Last day of the CABS anti-poaching camp in Cyprus

Last day of the anti-poaching camp in Cyprus and time to return to the UK after 4 months spent between Italy, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus. It is time to draw some conclusions. The first and most important one is about the situation in the British ESBA in Cyprus. Illegal bird poaching could be stopped, quite quickly and easily in fact, if only there was the will to do so from Great Britain. It would be enough to send a contingent of trained policemen to the SBAs to patrol and

Day 7 CABS anti-poaching camp Cyprus

Day 7 CABS anti-poaching camp Cyprus

Day 7 of the anti-poaching camp in Cyprus. For those who have followed the story so far it should have become clear that a great deal of the trapping, where the situation is most dangerous and out of control, is taking place in the ESBA (Eastern Sovereign Base Areas) of Cyprus. There are two sections of the ESBA: Ayos Nikolaos and Cape Pyla, connected by a thin corridor and both very heavily patrolled by poachers who are guarding the trapping sites from us and whoever else mi

Surprise visit in Cyprus

Surprise visit in Cyprus

I can finally reveal the secret I've been keeping with me for the past week: Chris Packham and his crew (independently of any broadcasters) have been with us for the past 4 days, filming CABS, the work we've done and the incredible and little known reality that is illegal bird trapping in Cyprus. I had to keep this a secret because if the word accidentally came out and got the British base, the poachers would have most likely suspended their trapping activity for fear of attr

Day 5 CABS anti-poaching camp in Cyprus

Day 5 CABS anti-poaching camp in Cyprus

Day 5 of the anti-poaching camp in Cyprus (after day 4 I was too tired to even put a sentence together). In the last 48 hours I got chased off by a poacher (but I outran him) after removing some of his traps, I filmed another film crew who is here to film CABS (!), I was intimidated by a police officer (yes, the people who should be doing our work and who recommended I leave Cyprus before something bad happens to me) and I have been massively disappointed by a team of journal

Day 3 CABS anti-poaching camp Cyprus

Day 3 CABS anti-poaching camp Cyprus

Day 3 of the anti-poaching camp in Cyprus. I walked for 8 miles in the almost palpable blackness of the night in the middle of the British Eastern Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia (ESBA), carrying two rescued owls in my bag. Their tiny claws scratching against my back, begging me to set them free. These were only two of the 15000 birds that get killed every night in Cyprus and that we had to walk past, unable to set them all free, while trying to dodge the trappers that were s

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