Poachers arrested in Akkar

Several poachers were arrested overnight Thursday to Friday by the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Akkar, north Lebanon, between the villages of Beino and Bebnin-Abde, reports our correspondent in the region.

Officers intervened following a complaint from sustainable hunting associations and environmentalists who closely monitor illegal hunting in Lebanon, as part of a collaboration between the Anti-Poaching Unit at the Middle East Sustainable Hunting Center (MESHC), the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL), and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS).

The hunting season was not opened this year by the Environment and Agriculture Ministries due to the absence of a High Hunting Council, which was not appointed at the end of summer. Despite this, illegal hunting is rampant in various Lebanese regions, especially in Akkar, where numerous complaints have been recorded since the beginning of September.

The hunters are not only breaking the law because the hunting season is closed, but also because most of them fail to follow the rules of the activity: they shoot at all species without distinction, not even sparing internationally protected migratory birds. One of these rules is the ban on night hunting.

With this operation, law enforcement arrested several of these offenders, taking them to police stations and seizing their rifles and illegal bird-call devices, as well as the spotlights used for night hunting. Others fled across the fields when the patrol approached, but according to our correspondent, the license plates of their vehicles were recorded and they will have to be apprehended later.