Chain link fences were erected in some places to trap the birds. Picture: LK
Bird nests have long been among the forest animals prohibited from hunting due to their high nutritional value for human health and the economy.
As a result, the recent hunting of swifts has angered many owners of swift breeding facilities and has severely impacted swift populations in provinces in particular and across the country in general.
Along the fields of Thang Binh and Duy districts
After setting up the net fences, the hunters open the speaker to entice the swifts to fly over and fall into the net. This is the ultimate hunting technique, making it very difficult for sailors to escape as the nets are very thin and difficult to see from a distance.
Foresters from Quang Nam cooperate in unloading nets to catch swifts in Thang Binh district. Picture: cl
Swallows often live in flocks in burrows on islands. Early in the morning they leave the island to fly to the mainland and go to the rice fields to catch insects such as grasshoppers, ants, bees, termites, dragonflies… until dusk they fly back to the island to live . This is the time when the hunters attract the nests en masse.
According to the locals, the time when the objects of the nest trap activities are around between 4am and 5am and 5pm and 6pm every day. At this time, the swifts eat a lot, each hunter can catch up to hundreds of them.
Usually, the swallows caught in the net are divided into two types. The dead birds are sold to restaurants and pubs and then renamed sparrows, while the live birds are collected and sold to traders who sell their animals on the full moon day or the 1st.
It is known that a swift often sells for as little as about VND 5,000 – 7,000 per bird, while in the same pair of swifts, if they live in the swift’s homes under favorable conditions, 2 – 3 nests will be made in a year if if it if harvested well, it will bring a value of VND 1 to 1.5 million. From the above difference, it can be seen that the Annihilation Trap did no small amount of damage.
Mr. Tran Phuoc Sy, Chairman of the Quang Da Salanganes’Nest Association, expressed his opinion, “The indiscriminate hunting of swifts is causing great harm to the Vietnamese bird nest industry.” Stricter sanctions need to be imposed, but according to Decree 14, the administrative penalties are currently too light and insufficient to deter the bird nest hunters.
The Quang Nam Forest Protection Force is propagating the Wildlife Protection Law in restaurants and eateries that process wild birds. Picture: cl
According to research on the bird nest market in Cu Lao Cham Island (Hoi An City, Quang Nam), bird nests on the island are currently sold for more than VND 150 million/kg Type 1 and usually the bird nest is exploited in 2 batches every year in late spring and late autumn.
However, due to a sharp decline in the number of swifts, the yield of this year’s nests had to be postponed until the end of autumn. The revenue from the exploitation of Cu Lao Cham nests in 2021 so far is about VND 47 billion, up 50%.
Mr. Cao Van Nam, director of the Swiftlet Management and Exploitation Board of Cu Lao Cham (Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province), said that there are many reasons for the decline in the number and production of swiftlets, but the main cause is mainly attributed to this be on the situation of the swift catch.
“The value of the island Swiftlets is calculated for each pair to generate 3-5 million dong per year, their life cycle is over 10 years. So catching a swift destroys the environment and destroys an entire economy. Of course, when farmers set up such traps, it is devastating. “Strong legal intervention measures are needed, but administrative sanctions are still very light,” commented Mr. Nam.
According to Mr. Nguyen, different means of communication. System. Based on the propaganda, we also regularly instruct rangers and mobile teams to regularly take control of areas and routes, etc. If violations are identified in this regard, they will be dealt with.