Tag: Supreme People’s Procuratorate

Crackdown continues on illegal hunting with nets

This year has seen a significant campaign, involving many governmental organisations, to crack down on illegal hunting, especially with nets.  An article published this week (in Chinese) detailed several cases where the authorities have uncovered large-scale illegal hunting activities and apprehended criminals.

The first example given in this article is startling.  The English translation of the text is as follows:

“Dalian Public Security Bureau in Liaoning Province cracks a series of cases involving the endangerment of precious and endangered wild animals.

Recently, the Dalian Public Security Bureau in Liaoning Province cracked a series of cases involving the endangerment of precious and endangered wild animals, arresting 13 suspects and seizing more than 12,000 Yellow-breasted Buntings, a Class I protected wild bird species, with a total value exceeding 39 million yuan. Investigation revealed that in May 2025, suspect Zhang Moubao repeatedly and illegally hunted nationally protected wild birds, then purchased these birds from others and resold them to suspect Jiang Mou, who then fattened and sold the birds.”

I understand that there will be a visit to Liaoning Province – a hotspot of illegal trapping, especially in autumn – by the central government prosecutors to investigate the organised criminal gangs behind this illegal activity.  This is a hugely welcome step and builds on the recent efforts to tackle the illegal use of mist nets by Chinese authorities.  

Most birders will know that the Yellow-breasted Bunting (Emberiza aureola 黄胸鹀 Huáng xiōng wú) is classified as critically endangered by BirdLife/IUCN after a catastrophic population crash – estimated at 84.3-94.7% between 1980 and 2013, as documented by Kamp et al. Illegal trapping in China is cited as the likely major cause of the decline.  Following the publication of that paper, there was a big public awareness campaign led by the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society and, although it is far too early to say for sure, recent records suggest that the decline of this species may have slowed.

If the current efforts to tackle illegal trapping are successful in turning around the fortunes of one of the most threatened species in China, it will provide a huge shot in the arm and demonstrate that a combination of science, public awareness, conservation, and engagement with law enforcement, really can work! 

 

 

Summary of special joint webinar by BirdLife International and Oriental Bird Club on mist nets in Asia

With huge gratitude to the speakers from China, Thailand and Vietnam, including the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, there is now a short summary of the special webinar on mist nets in Asia on the Oriental Bird Club website.

In addition to the speakers, the organisers would like to thank the 130 people who joined online from around the world and the interpreters who kindly provided simultaneous English and Mandarin translation.

A snippet of the summary is below.  For the full article, please see this link.

“The webinar heard case studies from south and north Vietnam (Trang Nguyen from WildAct Vietnam and Nguyen Hoai Bao of WildTour and BirdLife International), Thailand (Rongrong Angkaew of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi) and China (Dan Liang of Princeton University). The case studies brought home the scale of illegal mist-net use in Asia for poaching and crop protection and some of the pioneering work to engage with authorities and local communities to try to reduce bird mortality, especially in wetlands and production landscapes in the region.

Representatives from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China – Deputy Director General Qiu Jinghui and Prosecutors Mou Qi and Ding Shu – then gave short presentations on the action being taken in China to tackle this issue. Deputy General Qiu revealed that addressing illegal mist-net use was now a high priority for the Supreme People’s Procuratorate who are focusing on “preventative, systematic and co-ordinated protection of wild birds.” The prosecutors had engaged with e-commerce platforms where mist-nets are cheaply and easily available to flag to anyone searching for mist-nets that their use to catch or kill wild birds is illegal. The national level prosecutors had also instructed provincial level prosecutors to prioritise the control of mist-nets. Case studies were presented in which local officials, after finding wild birds were being killed using mist-nets, had engaged with local communities to raise awareness of the law relating to wild bird protection and to explore alternative crop protection methods that do not involve the killing of wild birds. In 2025 research will take place into identifying a standard for anti-bird nets that protect crops but are more visible to birds, for example nets with a thick cord, and controlling the production and public sale of nets with a thinner cord. The prosecutors also noted that some of the mist-nets being used in Thailand and Vietnam had been imported from China and they will explore the potential to restrict their export from China.”

The organisers and speakers agreed to continue this discussion and there will be a meeting shortly after the Spring Festival to discuss next steps.

Thanks again to everyone involved for making the webinar possible and for shining a light on this important issue.  For those that missed the webinar, it is expected that the case study presentations will soon be available via the Oriental Bird Club website.  Links will be provided as soon as they are live.

 

Title image: a caged Yellow-breasted Bunting positioned as a lure adjacent to an illegally set mist net in Hebei Province (photo by Terry Townshend)