COVID-19 and CABS Bird Protection Camps

In times of the COVID 19 pandemic, we too, as "travelling bird conservationists", must change our work. The work of CABS functions based on two components: On the one hand, local bird conservationists who work on in-situ in our operations areas all year round and, on the other hand, volunteer bird guards from all over Europe who travel to participate in our large bird protection camps in the bottleneck areas of migratory bird hunting during the main poaching season - spring and autumn. 

Due to the restrictions on movement, social distancing rules and hygiene regulations imposed in all our areas of operation, we will not be able to carry out our operations in 2020 as we had planned, until further notice. In spring we already had to significantly reduce our operations and the autumn operations will also have to take place subject to corona restrictions as they are announced in due course. We do not only have the legal regulations in mind, but we also want to show the solidarity that is urgently needed, without which the virus will spread too quickly and thus bring our health systems to breaking point. 

Until a vaccine is available, our hygiene concept will allow at least a minimum of staffing in the areas of operation. Key points here are the accommodation of the participants in single rooms, smaller teams and, due to longer deployment times of the individual activists, a lower fluctuation or turnover and thus fewer contacts. Depending on the development of the infection figures, we assume that with these measures we will be able to carry out all bird protection camps in summer and autumn 2020 with a smaller staffing.

However, it is not only us bird conservationists who have to adapt to restrictions - hunters and poachers cannot readily move freely. We therefore do not expect uncontrolled bird hunting in the important bird migration areas. 

As the general conditions change daily, we cannot yet predict what exactly the bird protection camps planned for the second half of the year will look like. However, we want to ensure a minimum presence even in the event of a renewed lockdown in the main poaching areas.