Japanese mist-net ban

Forest and Bird, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 February 1992, Page 7

Japanese mist-net ban

AFTER PERSISTENT pressure from the Wild Bird Society of Japan and international environmental groups, the Japanese government banned the possession, sale or export of mist-nets from September last year. Up to three million birds each year were caught in mist-nets for consumption in Japan. The use of mist-nets for anything other than scientific purposes has been illegal

since 1950, but the law proved largely ineffective, mainly because it did not make any attempt at all to control the sale or possession of the nets. Moreover, the birds that are killed in Japan are just the tip of the iceberg. A large proportion of the millions of migratory birds that are killed in the Mediterranean each year are caught in mist-nets, almost all of which are imported from Japan. In Cyprus, for example, although mistnetting has been illegal for several years, the nets continue to be imported and more than ten million of the 25 million birds that are slaughtered each year in the country are believed to be netted. In the long-term, the most effective way to halt the netting of birds is to remove demand for them. Japan currently imports frozen birds whose capture is prohibited within Japan. Conservationists are now pressing the government to ban this trade, which not only provides a market for other countries to supply, but also affords cover for poachers to operate within Japan.

Source: International Council for Bird Preservation