Permits to hunt six white-tailed sea eagles will be granted between May 14 and June 9 on the Finnish island Lagskar, local government official Jesper Josefsson told AFP.
The species is protected within the European Union.
The island forms part of the autonomous and demilitarised group of Aland islands. The area belongs to EU's Natura 2000 network of protected areas for flora and fauna.
Through the cull, the local government on Aland aims to protect endangered eiders -- a kind of sea duck -- that nest on the island.
After failed attempts to stop the eagles preying on the eiders, the local government has issued permits to hunt them for a second year in a row.
"The aim is not to reduce the eagle population but to protect the eider in this restricted area during a limited time period," Josefsson, the Aland government's economy and environment minister, told AFP.
A similar decision last year led to the killing of three eagles. Josefsson said the long-term aim was to make the eagles "start avoiding the area".
Finland is the only EU country that allows the killing of the white-tailed sea eagle, listed as a "flagship species" for nature conservation under EU law.
The Finnish branch of the international bird organisation BirdLife said it had filed a complaint to Finland's Supreme Administrative Court on Monday.
It asked the court to overrule the decision to issue the licences, BirdLife's Finland director Aki Arkiomaa told AFP.
"There is no legal basis in the EU's Birds Directive to permit the killing of the eagles", Arkiomaa said.
An appeal against last year's decision to issue hunting licences is still pending in the court.
"We don't see that killing of some birds to protect others is the modern way to do bird protection," Arkiomaa said.
He added that methods such as "increased human presence on the island" had "led the eider population to steep growth".
The white-tailed sea eagle was almost extinct in the Baltic Sea area in the 1970s, but has recovered since through conservation efforts.
Illegal wildlife trafficking persistently pervasive: UN
Vienna (AFP) May 13, 2024 -
The proportion of the global wildlife trade that is illegal has risen, the UN reported Monday, saying progress to end the crime was not on track.
Globally the intercepted illegal wildlife trade as a proportion of all wildlife trade increased from 2017 onwards, the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
"Wildlife trafficking overall has not been substantially reduced over two decades," said the body's third "World Wildlife Crime Report", with around 4,000 plant and animal species impacted in countries around the world.
"The global scope and scale of wildlife crime remain substantial," it added, calling for measures, such as more consistent enforcement and effective implementation of anti-corruption and other laws.
The proportion reached its highest levels during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when wildlife seizures made up around 1.4-1.9 percent of global wildlife trade, compared to between 0.5-1.1 per cent during the previous four years, it said.
"We're not seeing a reduction in that proportion of illegal trade... so that's why we're saying it's not on track," researcher Steven Broad involved in the report told AFP.
But in positive news, poaching, seizure levels and market prices have "declined solidly" for "iconic" commodities from elephants and rhinoceros over the past decade, the report added.
"We have seen a sustained decline over the last 10 years, which shows that it can be done," Broad said.
UNODC warned that wildlife trafficking can "disrupt delicate ecosystems".
"Some of the species worse affected -- like rare orchids, succulents, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals -- receive little public attention, though wildlife trafficking appears to have played a major role in their local or global extinctions," it noted.
The report is based on, among others, 140,000 records of wildlife seizures reported to have taken place between 2015-2021.
Corals were the most frequently seized, accounting for 16 percent of all seizures, followed by crocodilians with nine percent.
The 169-page report is the UNODC's third report on wildlife trafficking following reports in 2016 and 2020.
Related Links
Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
