Egypt is taking part in marking World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), observed this year under the theme of “Every Bird Counts — Your Observations Matter.”
National bodies involved in conservation, various institutions, and civil society organisations are working to protect migratory birds and raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding these soaring treasures amid a crisis of the loss of biodiversity worldwide.
WMBD is celebrated globally twice a year, on the second Saturday of May and October, in conjunction with the spring and autumn migration seasons between the northern and southern hemispheres.
Egypt believes protecting migratory birds is a shared responsibility that requires the combined efforts of different institutions and individuals in order to preserve biodiversity, secure a more sustainable future, and curb the phenomenon of illegal hunting. For Egypt, the issue encompasses environmental, economic and social dimensions that demand integrated solutions.
Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE) organised a workshop on “Enhancing the Governance of Bird Hunting in Egypt: Lessons Learned and Challenges and Prospects for Joint Action.” The event brought together a group of experts, officials, and NGO representatives to draw up a roadmap for protecting the millions of birds that cross Egypt’s skies annually.
Participants at the workshop said that protecting migratory birds is not an environmental luxury, but an economic necessity and a moral obligation.
Egypt is one of the world’s most important transit countries for migratory birds, owing to its unique geographical position linking Europe and Africa, said Manal Awad, minister of local development and the environment. Millions of migratory birds pass through Egyptian territory each year, particularly across coastal regions and wetlands that serve as key resting and feeding stations during seasonal migration journeys, she added.
The country’s natural reserves play a pivotal role in protecting migratory birds through safeguarding vital natural habitats, including lakes, islands and salt marshes, which provide essential stopover and feeding points during annual migration routes, Awad said.
She stressed that monitoring, limiting environmental threats, supporting scientific research and raising environmental awareness of the importance of biodiversity are some of her ministry’s strategic objectives, pursued in line with global biodiversity conservation goals.
Among the protected areas and natural habitats providing safe and suitable environments for birds in Egypt are Zaraniq, Ashtoum Al-Gamil, and Lake Burullus along the Mediterranean coast, the Ras Mohamed National Park, and the northern islands of the Red Sea, she said.
Awad noted that one of the leading national models for the protection of migratory birds is the implementation of the Winter Census of Migratory Birds project carried out in cooperation between the ministry and NCE. The project contributes to monitoring the numbers and species of migratory birds and establishing an accurate scientific database to support conservation efforts and biodiversity protection in Egypt, she said.
Aiming to protect migratory birds, the ministry has issued annual regulations on hunting activities. Moreover, the rescue centre at Ashtoum Al-Gamil is conducting field efforts to rehabilitate and care for great white pelicans and birds of prey. Campaigns have also been organised to remove illegal bird-hunting nets in northern protected areas. Around 18 km of illegal fishing and hunting nets have been removed from the Ashtoum Al-Gamil and Lake Burullus protected areas, Awad said.
Sherif Baha Al-Din, chairman of NCE, said that migratory birds constitute part of our shared global heritage and represent a real test of humanity’s ability to safeguard ecological systems.
He explained that illegal hunting targets 11 endangered species, most notably the steppe eagle, with 251 recorded cases, the saker falcon with 99 cases, and the eastern imperial eagle with 69 cases of illegal hunting being recorded annually.
Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza rank among the governorates witnessing the highest incidence of such violations, Baha Al-Din said.
Despite the ministerial decision to extend the hunting ban in Lake Nasser, there are still legal loopholes that require urgent intervention, he noted. These include the absence of clearly defined hunting quotas for each species in the annual hunting regulations, the failure to distinguish between “tourist”, “professional”, and “amateur” hunting, and the inadequacy of fines, which range between LE5,000 and LE50,000 and remain disproportionate to the gravity of the violations or the market value of some falcon species.
He also pointed to the absence of environmental compensation mechanisms for illegal hunting conducted outside protected areas.
AWARENESS: Mustafa Fouda, an expert on biodiversity, warned of what he described as an educational imbalance that begins in childhood, when some children become accustomed to using toy hunting guns and thereby normalising the idea of harming living creatures.
He stressed that humans bear the primary responsibility for the destruction and depletion of nature.
Fouda argued that there is also a misconception that hunting generates economic returns, whereas the loss of bird populations in fact causes severe economic damage across multiple sectors.
In agriculture, he said, birds provide natural pest-control services, particularly on coffee plantations where without them there would be the loss of an estimated equivalent of 12 per cent of the crop’s value. In public health, the collapse of vulture populations in South Asia has resulted in health-related costs amounting to $34 billion due to the spread of disease. Meanwhile, in the field of ecotourism, birdwatching in the US alone generates $279 billion in economic returns and supports around 1.4 million jobs.
Khaled Elnoubi, CEO of NCE, stated that more than 5.5 million birds are illegally hunted in Egypt every year. As a result, Egypt ranks second among Mediterranean countries in rates of illegal hunting.
He noted that the NCE’s efforts have not been confined to scientific monitoring at strategic locations such as the Galala Bird Observatory on the Gulf of Suez, and online illegal market monitoring, but have also extended to confronting direct threats facing migratory birds.
He pointed to the dangers of using electronic sound devices, or devices that mimic bird songs to attract them, since these may increase the number of birds trapped in nets more than fivefold in some cases. These devices are reportedly used by 78 per cent of hunters in the Lake Burullus protected area, regarded as one of the main hotspots for illegal bird hunting, alongside North Sinai and the northwestern coast.
Elnoubi stressed that the damage has extended beyond bird populations to local ecosystems. Monitoring has revealed a 60 per cent decline in wintering bird populations in Lake Nasser over the past two decades, for example. In a statistical survey of online wildlife-related crimes conducted in 2024-2025, the NCE tracked activity across four groups on Facebook and identified 1,212 activities, 96.8 per cent of which were classified as illegal.
Referring to recent successes in conservation, Elnoubi mentioned the hunting ban imposed in Lake Nasser over the past three years, which has produced tangible positive results, including the return of several rare bird species to the area.
He explained that the experience has not been limited to environmental gains alone, but has also generated important economic and social benefits, with a number of former hunters and boat owners becoming bird-guides in a practical model demonstrating the potential of sustainable ecotourism as an alternative source of income.
Elnoubi noted that illegal hunting typically refers to any hunting activity that exceeds the ecosystem’s ability to recover and replenish what has been removed from it, rendering it unsustainable.
He called on all the parties concerned to draw up a roadmap that would include stricter penalties, the use of technology in monitoring activities and greater integration among religious, educational, and environmental institutions to ensure the safe return of birds to Egypt’s skies.
POACHING: Mohamed Ismail, head of the ministry’s Wildlife Unit, said bringing an end to the practice of poaching or illegal hunting is not the responsibility of the ministry alone, but instead is a shared effort involving a number of bodies, including the Environmental and Water Bodies Police, the General Authority for Fish Resources, and border guards and the governorates, which are responsible for enforcing the law on the ground.
Ismail also called on the public to report violations related to the illegal wildlife trade.
Legal adviser Amer Ismail said that the first bird-protection laws in Egypt date back to 1903, and that these were updated in the Nature Reserves Law 102/1983 and the Environment Law 4/1994. Article 28 of the latter law is the principal legal foundation prohibiting the hunting, killing, or capture of wild birds and animals, he said, as well as the destruction of their habitats without a licence.
He said that the executive regulations of the law specify the criteria governing hunting notably through a list comprising 21 species that can be hunted with the appropriate permits, including the northern pintail, the Eurasian teal, the quail, the European turtle dove, and the house sparrow.
Hunting is prohibited in areas of importance to wild birds, he said, including wetlands, migratory routes, and both existing and future nature reserves, as well as designated zones covering the Sinai Peninsula, the Eastern Desert, and the Western Desert.
One of the legislative loopholes and field challenges, Ismail said, is the shortcomings in Article 28 of the 1994 law, which treats birds, animals, and aquatic creatures equally despite their different life cycles. The law also imposes the same penalties for hunting and the destruction of habitat. There is no provision for environmental compensation, as the law does not oblige violators to pay for environmental damage caused outside protected areas.
Other shortcomings in hunting regulations include the failure to distinguish between different kinds of licence, neglect over the number of permits issued within a single area, and the absence of provisions allowing the authorities to suspend hunting seasons immediately in the event of disease outbreaks.
Ismail called for amendments to articles 28 and 84 of the law in order to introduce graduated penalties proportionate to the seriousness of offences, as well as the adoption of a hunting risk insurance system. He proposed the establishment of a dedicated authority to regulate hunting, the creation of qualitative and field databases, the coding of licences, and the launch of an electronic platform displaying regulations and authorised permit holders.
He also suggested that hunters be required to maintain logs documenting the numbers and species hunted.
Along with other experts talked to by Al-Ahram Weekly, he stressed the importance of bolstering the role of NGOs in monitoring and information-sharing efforts, while also introducing permit fees that would help to finance bird-protection measures and enhance oversight mechanisms.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 21 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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