An Alexandria coffee shop was recently reported to be hosting a number of rare wild animals, prompting the authorities to investigate. Several endangered species were found in the shop, including four foxes, two snakes, two eagles, a buzzard, two peacocks, a pelican, two monkeys, and four monitor lizards.
The incident, in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also violates Article 28 of Egypt’s Environment Law 4/1994 and its amendments, which prohibit the hunting, killing, or capturing of birds and wild animals and ban the possession, transport, public display, or sale of such species, whether alive or dead.
Manal Awad, the minister of local development and acting minister of environment, ordered the transfer of the confiscated animals and birds to the Alexandria Zoo. The violators are being subjected to legal measures pending further investigations by the Prosecution General.
Awad said that owning or displaying endangered or wild animals without a licence is a crime that entails legal accountability. She said that the Ministry of Environment is committed to upholding international agreements on the preservation of biodiversity, which are essential to maintaining the stability of life on Earth. She also called on the public to report any crimes involving endangered species they may be aware of in order to enable the authorities to take the necessary measures.
The Alexandria incident prompted Al-Ahram Weekly to re-examine one of the most pressing threats to Egypt’s biodiversity: the poaching of migratory birds. Every year, a natural wonder is renewed as millions of migratory birds embark on journeys across the world’s continents, flying thousands of kilometres in search of warmth and food. These birds are an invaluable biological resource and a vital indicator of the health of global ecosystems.
However, some of these incredible journeys are no longer safe as migratory birds face mounting threats from poaching and the systematic destruction of their habitats.
Khaled Al-Noubi, executive director of the Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), explained that Egypt lies along one of the world’s most important migratory routes that is used by millions of birds flying south from Europe during the winter in search of warmth and food. However, after travelling thousands of miles, these birds may face the hunters’ guns.
He said that in 2022-23 the NCE had documented a troubling pattern of organised poaching on Lake Nasser in Upper Egypt, a critical body of water on the migratory route. The NCE had monitored 15 illegal hunting trips, each lasting two weeks, involving 78 foreign hunters, most of them Maltese. The hunters had targeted large numbers of migratory birds, including protected and endangered species, Al-Noubi stated.
According to NCE reports, the threat also extends beyond Lake Nasser, with other areas also endangered by poaching. Egypt ranks among the world’s top nine countries that need to take strict measures to curb the rate of illegal bird hunting, with an estimated 5.7 million birds killed annually, including rare species.
Al-Noubi added that the NCE reports had identified internationally prohibited methods used by poachers, such as long nets along the coast, poor-quality inland nets, lime sticks in the Delta, the use of semi-automatic rifles on lake shores, and sound devices that mimic bird calls to lure birds into ambushes.
He noted that these illegal practices are sometimes disguised as tourism, with companies organising hunting trips and promoting Egypt as an open hunting ground and a refuge for poachers evading the law in their home countries.
He said that in addition to their importance for biodiversity, migratory birds play both an important economic and tourism role, and that ending bird hunting would not cut off livelihood opportunities. Birdwatching and eco-tourism create broader opportunities for income generation and employment than hunting, he said, while serving as a sustainable and attractive form of tourism.
He added that the Ministry of Environment’s 2023 decision to ban hunting on Lake Nasser has already yielded tangible results. Biodiversity indicators have improved, and rare birds have begun to return to the area, including the first documented case of the village weaver bird breeding in Abu Simbel.
The decision has also helped to stimulate economic shifts in the local community, with a number of former hunters now working as environmental and tourism guides. This transformation has not only opened new avenues for livelihoods in the area but has also turned illegal practices into opportunities for sustainable development, he said.
Al-Noubi called for extending the hunting ban on Lake Nasser for another year, 2025-2026, citing the reappearance of rare bird species. He explained that the two-year ban has already led to the return of several species and stressed that it should be expanded to include the nearby New Valley, alongside the stricter enforcement of environmental laws protecting migratory and resident birds.
He also urged the authorities to expose illegal foreign hunting networks that exploit Egypt as a preferred destination, while supporting the shift towards ecotourism as a fair and sustainable economic alternative. Local communities should be encouraged to act as partners in protection rather than participants in crime, he added.
Those profiting from illegal hunting falsely claim that bans harm local livelihoods, when in fact the only real beneficiaries of illegal hunting are bird-hunting and smuggling gangs, Al-Noubi said. The hunters skin the birds, preserve their hides and feathers, and smuggle them abroad to be stuffed and sold for often thousands of dollars.
PROTECTION: Ekrami Al-Abasyri, director-general of Southern Region Reserves at the Ministry of Environment, explained that the ministry relies on precise scientific mechanisms to provide the highest possible level of protection for migratory birds.
These include a winter bird count and the monitoring of rare species, in addition to continuous assessments of Lake Nasser’s environmental status. He noted that Lake Nasser is one of Egypt’s most important monitoring sites, making it a key platform for shaping national environmental policy.
Outlining the ecological impact of the two-year suspension of bird hunting on Lake Nasser, renewed annually by ministerial decision, Al-Abasyri said that among the most significant outcomes had been the appearance of the weaver bird for the first time. Although native to Kenya, this species has been observed nesting in Lake Nasser, he said.
Other rare species have also reappeared, encouraging visits from international eco-tourism and birdwatching groups.
Hussein Rashad, director of the Northern Region Reserves and of the Ashtoum Al-Gamil Reserve in Port Said, said that Egypt has been shifting in focus towards ecotourism, particularly birdwatching, given that the country lies along one of the world’s most important migratory routes.
The Bird Migration Festival in Port Said attracted 15,000 visitors last year, he added, expecting it to attract more in the future. Other governorates are also preparing to hold similar events, including Damietta, which has already begun cooperation with Damietta University in order to do so.
Atef Kamel, vice-dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ain Shams University in Cairo and head of the Wildlife Department, called for stricter oversight, accountability for violators, and the better conservation of Egypt’s natural resources, including both resident and migratory birds.
He stressed that these species play a vital role in the national economy through agriculture, aiding pollination, and controlling insect populations. He said that further protective measures could also stimulate ecotourism and birdwatching, which are seeing growing global demand.
Watar Al-Bahri, a NCE field conservation officer, called for the launch of a national campaign to be called “Bringing Back the Birds: No to Poaching” as a step towards safeguarding biodiversity and combating environmental degradation.
The campaign was inaugurated at the headquarters of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, as a joint initiative between the ECSN and the Environmental Writers and Development Association. The event brought together officials and experts, representatives of the ministries of environment and tourism, and media professionals and civil society organisations concerned with environmental issues.
The head of the Press Syndicate voiced his support for initiatives of this type that employ media tools to raise awareness of environmental issues and draw attention to the protection of natural resources as both a national and societal responsibility.
Mohamed Hussein, director of communications at the NCE, said that the campaign seeks to establish a model for managing environmentally sensitive areas in Egypt, in line with the country’s commitments under the Rome Strategic Plan 2020-2030, which aims to reduce illegal hunting rates by 50 per cent.
He stressed the importance of extending the hunting ban to include the oases of the New Valley governorate, which are subject to similar environmental pressures.
Sherif Bahaaeddin, a conservation expert, consultant, and chairman of the board of the NCE, said that hunting is among the most harmful activities affecting birds and other species in Egypt and noting that its impact has grown in recent years. He explained that hunting is no longer confined to the coast but now extends deep into the desert, leading to the severe depletion of bird species in the absence of effective regulation.
He added that migratory birds are not only threatened during their route across the Mediterranean and in Egypt, but they also face pressures on stop-off points along the migration routes, both in breeding and wintering areas, including habitat destruction, pollution, and hunting. For this reason, he said, their decline constitutes a global problem.
“Even the hunters have come to acknowledge that bird populations are decreasing year by year,” Bahaaeddin said, recalling that “an elderly man in North Sinai I met when I was researching quail hunting described how flocks of quail had once darkened the sky in the area like black clouds, with the hunters’ nets becoming so heavy from the sheer number of birds in them that they would rip and tear.”
“Today, weeks may pass without more than a few quail being caught,” he said, adding that “if poaching and unregulated bird hunting persist, there will eventually be nothing left to hunt.”
“What is needed,” Badaaeddin said, “is not the complete abolition of hunting, but rather its regulation and control in accordance with scientific studies that identify which species may be hunted and which must be prohibited.”
“It is inconceivable that extremely rare birds, of which only a few may remain, should continue to be hunted and sold in markets as if they were just ordinary meat.”
Amer Ismail, an environmental legislation expert, explained that the sole body legally authorised to regulate, supervise, and monitor hunting in Egypt is the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) under Law 4/1994.
This empowers the agency to issue annual decisions regulating hunting, including specifying permitted species, determining locations and quantities, and issuing hunting permits. The EEAA holds the primary authority in this area, though the law allows it to delegate certain tasks to other administrative bodies, such as local government, tourism departments, or other relevant entities, if it deems this necessary, Ismail said.
Ismail noted that the annual hunting regulations are usually issued in August and that they specify which species may be hunted, the governorates in which this is allowed, typically eight or nine, and the mechanism for granting permits, whether for tourism or other purposes.
However, he said that the current decision, despite its importance, suffers from shortcomings and inconsistencies. These include the absence of the specification of quantities and numbers, inadequate safety distances, weak field oversight, the exclusion of civil society and the security agencies from enforcement matters, and a failure to consider the ecological balance of each region.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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