Overwatch
LYING
BELLY DOWN, her elbows propped on the edge of a
cliff, Shirine Bou Raffoul peers through her
binoculars, watching a group of men and boys
among the pines on the other side of the valley.
The woods of Akkar al Atiqa, in Lebanon’s far
north, are breathtaking — sharp cliffs
dramatically giving way to crisp, undulating
green — but the scenery is a second thought. Bou
Raffoul is focused on poachers.
A
member of the local Middle East Sustainable
Hunting Center’s Anti-Poaching Unit, or APU, Bou
Raffoul and her fellow team of six, including
her older brother, Maroun, are on a mission to
capture video evidence of the illegal killing of
migratory birds. Both Shirine and Maroun are
employed by the German Committee Against Bird
Slaughter, or CABS, which sends members and runs
anti-poaching missions over each migratory
season with partners like the APU.
Lebanon
is situated in the middle of the East
African-Eurasian flyway, making the country one
of the most important migration corridors in the
world for many species of birds. But the country
also has a long tradition of bird hunting, which
has been a disaster for species of concern like
honey buzzards and lesser spotted eagles.
Between three and five million migratory birds
are shot in Lebanon each year as they make the
dangerous trip from Europe to Africa and back
each spring and autumn.
In
Akkar al Attiqa, the wind is strong so the birds
are flying low, making them easier targets. Two
shots reverberate across the valley, and with
their video cameras poised, the anti-poaching
team announces they have caught a poacher
shooting two honey buzzards. The team
immediately calls the local police and the
national Internal Security Force, as Maroun and
a fellow APU team member jump in a car and speed
down a dirt track. After travelling some
distance, they stop the vehicle, jump out, and
run up a hill, where they’d seen the buzzards
fall. They find them: One of the birds is hung
up in a pine tree, dead, the other fallen to the
ground, wounded but alive.
Writer Tessa Fox
reports on bird hunting in Lebanon, where a
small anti-poaching unit is working to educate
hunters about the toll of wanton
killing.
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