Our call to resolve the cormorant-fisheries conflict based on proper science, respecting EU and international laws and processes
-
Biodiversity - Flyways
-
Biodiversity - Swimways
We sent a joint letter signed by 40 environmental NGOs and civil society organisations expressing strong concerns about inadequate proposals for management of the Great Cormorant in Europe being discussed at the Agriculture and Fisheries (AGRIFISH) Council of the European Union. In the letter, we urge the European Commission to reject this proposal and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to withdraw its biased and unlawful advice.
On the table: a framework for a Pan-European Cormorant Management Plan developed by the European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission (EIFAAC), an advisory body of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This proposal suggested a coordinated mass culling of Cormorants at a European scale. In addition, Sweden has proposed in the AGRIFISH Council that the Great Cormorant be classified as huntable under the EU Birds Directive.
In our letter to the European Commission, we express concerns that the FAO’s and Sweden’s proposals are yet another move to weaken environmental legislation and could lead to a review of the EU Birds Directive. We welcome the European Commissioner Jessika Roswall’s statement offering further guidance to Member States on managing the cormorant-fisheries conflict with existing tools. We also urge the European Commission to maintain its science-based stance that the EU Birds Directive already provides a suitable framework for addressing this conflict and there is no need for a Pan-European Cormorant Management Plan.
In the meantime, we sent another letter to the FAO Director General demanding the withdrawal of the EIFAAC’s plan because of its poor quality, contradiction with the Birds Directive, with AEWA management planning processes and FAO’s own guidelines concerning biodiversity and the management of human-widlife conflicts.
