Limsticks in Provence
Provence's reputation as an ideal holiday destination isn't a rule that fits for all: Feathered guests, who want to spend the winter in the milder climate of south-eastern France, are brutally pursued, trapped and killed en-masses.
As is the case in northern Italy, most hunters in Provence hunt migratory birds from so-called "camouflage huts". On specially cleared areas in the forest a hut is erected, in which the hunter lurks waiting for their prey. The area surrounding the shooting bunker is made attractive with bird food and water, but above all the owner of a camouflage hut (known as ‘Capanni’) needs one thing: decoy lures - live birds used to draw others of their kind before the shotguns.
To get to these decoys, the French state has allowed the catching of thrushes until 2020. In five departments of Provence, thousands of hunters were allowed to lay out rods coated with sticky glue on which unsuspecting songbirds land and remain stuck. The conditions for this derogation were high: Each trapper was only allowed to catch 20 birds per year, had to be present at all times to release the birds unharmed, the glue-sticks were only allowed to be laid out in the morning hours and the sale of the birds was strictly prohibited.
In reality, in the remote villages of Provence, where in November no tourist can admire the faded lavender fields, not everyone adhered to such requirements. CABS research has shown that the birds were sold expensively - to French hunters as well as to Italian ‘Capanni’ owners.
Like the birds, the quota was completely plucked out of the air: trapping with limesticks was allowed for 8 weeks in autumn, each trapper had hundreds of glue sticks. It is hard to believe that anyone would go to such an effort for 20 birds. Local bird trappers have confirmed that the quota was easily exhausted within a week at the latest, the rest of the time the birds were simply caught illegally. Effective controls = zero.
Despite an official quota of 40,000 birds, limestick trapping in Provence was likely to result in around 300,000 thrushes and other songbirds being killed each year. France was the only country in the EU that still permitted the use of glue sticks!
The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has regularly conducted field investigations in Provence in order to gather information on the reality of the bird trapping. The results were made available in a statement for the EU Commission and are the basis for EU environmental complaints and protest actions to initiate infringement proceedings together with the French nature conservation association LPO. The pressure on the authorities in the departments had recently increased to such an extent that the Macron government has now banned the use of limesticks (gluesticks) in October 2020 - at least for the 2020/2021 hunting season. The pressure from hunting associations is massive, so it remains to be seen whether the ban will become indefinite.