€11 million earned from poaching revenue

The illegal poaching and trapping of migratory birds earns criminals around 11 million euros, according to Justice minister Anna Procopiou.

Procopiou produced the figure after the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the Game and Fauna Service and the police regarding the re-establishment of the anti-poaching squad.

Procopiou announced the squad’s re-establishment together with Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, with both saying that the reconstituted anti-poaching squad would employ twice the number of people as previously.

“The figure of 11 million euros is something that the anti-poaching squad will be called upon to deal with,” Procopiou said, adding that she intends for it to operate in a more efficient way than before.

Ioannou said that there had been a total of 3,200 cases of people violating anti-poaching legislation in the last six years, with the total amount of fines now over 3.5 million euros.