BBC News Online: Despatches

Afghan falcons under threat

Conservationists have expressed deep concern about the huge increase in the number of falcon hunters in Afghanistan. Our Kabul correspondent, Alan Johnston, sent this report.

Falcons are caught in numerous poverty-stricken parts of Afghanistan and eventually sold for huge sums to buyers in the Gulf states.

Conservationists fear so many falcons are now being caught in Afghanistan they could virtually disappear from the country altogether with serious consequences for the ecological balance.

Six hunters sit on a lonely hilltop in the snowbound high country of central Afghanistan. They watch the cloudless sky for falcons.

Their bait are doves, rigged up with hoops of fishing line. The hunter hurls his dove into the air, hoping that a falcon will plummet down and strike at the bait.

If the hunter is lucky, the falcon's talons will become entangled in the fishing line hoops and as it struggles to free itself, it will fall to earth where it can be caught. A hunter can go years without snaring a falcon but when he does the reward is huge.

He can sell the bird for 5,000 dollars -- a fortune in this poverty-stricken region. Middle-men traders will eventually sell the falcon for 50,000 dollars or more to buyers who use them to hunt game in the deserts of Arabia.

The Afghan conservation organisation, SAVE, is surveying the country's falcon hunting industry but it says it's already clear that there's been an explosion in the amount of snaring activity. As the Afghan war drags on and the country slides ever deeper into poverty, more and more men are being drawn to the lottery of the falcon hunt.

SAVE fears that within five years falcon numbers will sink so low that they may cease to reproduce in Afghanistan. SAVE says that this is due to one of many ways in which the country is being stripped of its wildlife and other natural resources while the turmoil of the war make it impossible to impose any kind of governmental controls.

Summaries

In this section

Agreement at Kyoto climate conference
EU ready for Internet law
Bosnian peace talks break down
Russian plane hijack ends
Bolivians take to streets to protest about fuel prices
Labour heads for first rebellion
Trouble in paradise
Thailand targets millionaire politicians
Sudan opposition condemns women's flogging
China looks for oil in the Dead Zone
China labour unrest
Tax row rumbles in Zimbabwe
Korean peace talks begin slowly
Indian cricketers cleared of cheating
Rain stops play at Islamic conference
Sierra Leone: not an Islamic state
Climate change plans outlined
Egyptian militants says they will end campaign against tourists
Thousands of Nigerians flock to funeral of detained politician
It's a dog's life for pet lovers in Shanghai
Sri Lankan army trained to fight legally
UN food airlift to avert Afghan famine
Nobel winners get awards
Thai monks stage world's biggest cremation