Valkerij in NO-Turkije: natuurbeschermingssucces na bijna drie decennia

The Eastern Black Sea flyway was first described in the 1960s, with incomplete counts carried out in Turkey in the 1970s indicating that hundreds of thousands of raptors converge along the eastern edge of the Black Sea in autumn. It was not until 2008 when the Batumi Raptor Count (BRC) was initiated that the full extent of raptor migration was understood; systematic counts revealed a total of 1.35 million raptors passing through a narrow corridor near Batumi, Georgia, in 2014. For centuries, local people living in this bottleneck have made use of the abundance of migrating raptors by catching Sparrowhawks Accipiter nisus which they lured into nets by using migratory Red-backed Shrikes Lanius collurio as a decoy. Other migratory raptors, as well as trapped Sparrowhawk males or females considered unfit for Quail Coturnix coturnix catching, were killed and fed to the Red-backed Shrikes. Although raptor killing had been noticed previously, it was not until 1987 that this tradition was investigated and described in detail for the Turkish section of the bottleneck, by the ICBP (now BirdLife International) and its Turkish partner DHKD. In 1987, it was estimated that a total of 15,000 Sparrowhawks were trapped, of which some 3,750 were estimated to have perished as a result of the falconry tradition in NE-Turkey. A total of 9,000 Red-backed Shrikes were employed to act as decoys during 1987, and it was estimated that as many as 15,000 raptors were killed annually to be fed to the decoys. Thus, the total number of raptors (including Sparrowhawks) that succumbed annually in NE-Turkey was estimated at around 18,750. During 1990, DHKD published and distributed the Turkish version of the 1989 ICBP report. The ongoing killing of raptors in NE-Turkey continued to receive international and national attention. Extensive awareness-raising activities were carried out by DHKD during the early 1990s, exposing the general public and governments, both Turkey-wide and locally, to the fact that thousands of raptors were being slaughtered. This eventually led to widespread consensus that falconry in this form was unacceptable and immoral. Subsequent constructive dialogue between government, Sparrowhawk trappers/owners and conservationists led to a willingness from all sides to make concessions. Simple proposals to change common practices, such as feeding the decoy birds with hard-boiled egg instead of raptor meat, were implemented by trappers. The new Hunting Law (approved in 2003) and subsequent regulations allowed for, among other things, up to two Sparrowhawks to be trapped and kept for a limited amount of time, and it also introduced a rigorous system for obtaining mandatory certificates. Declining numbers of Sparrowhawk trappers/owners were noted from the late 1990s onwards, along with a decline in raptor killing for decoy food. During the autumn of 2015, a short and targeted field survey was carried out to update the status of falconry and associated raptor killing in NE-Turkey. This survey revealed that since 1987 (a) the number of Sparrowhawk trappers and Sparrowhawk owners had decreased by up to 50%, (b) the number of trapped Red-backed Shrikes and Sparrowhawks had also gone down by up to 50%, and (3) no, or very few, Sparrowhawks or other raptors were being killed to serve as food for the decoys. This paper describes the situation in 1987 and in 2015, as well the actions undertaken inbetween to remedy the situation. Finally, it performs an analysis to assess the impact of the various measures taken.