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BEIRUT: Caretaker Environment Minister Mohammad Rahhal called on the judiciary Thursday to take legal action against amateur hunters who killed dozens of migratory storks.
In a letter to the Justice Ministry, Rahhal formally asked that the public prosecutor’s office for environmental crimes take suitable legal measures against violators, especially those who displayed photos showing dozens of dead birds on the Facebook page of an amateur hunter.
Some of the photographs, which have since been removed from the individual’s page, showed piles of dead birds with the hunters posing in front of them.
The incident took place in Koura, north Lebanon, according to sources familiar with the issue.
Rahhal said the hunters were at fault on at least two fronts.
“A decision to formally open the hunting season has not been issued this year, which means that hunting is still forbidden. Irrespective [of the hunting season], the stork is beneficial to the ecological system and agriculture, and will definitely be included on the list of birds whose hunting is banned in Lebanon,” Rahhal said in his letter to the Justive Ministry.
Rahhal also noted that hunting storks is internationally banned throughout the year and that, as a signatory to the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, Lebanon is committed to this ban.
Article 14 of the hunting law, enacted in 2004, stipulates a punishment of one month in prison, a fine of LL500,000, or both, for anyone found to be hunting or carrying his or her quarry during a hunting ban. A violator’s hunting license may also be revoked for a period ranging between one and three years.
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