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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