EuroNatur Award 2026: Honouring courageous bird conservationists

Radolfzell, Island of Mainau. The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has today been awarded the EuroNatur Award. The nature conservation organisation receives the honour for its decades-long and often dangerous campaign against illegal killing of birds along European migration routes. On behalf of the numerous volunteer bird conservationists, Karl-Heinz Kreutzer (Chair of CABS) and Axel Hirschfeld (Spokesperson for the Committee) accepted the award.

With the EuroNatur Award, the foundation recognises in particular the practical nature conservation work carried out by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter. For decades, its teams have been uncovering illegal trapping methods, documenting breaches of nature conservation laws, removing trapping nets and glue sticks, and working with the authorities to curb the poaching of migratory birds.

In her laudatory speech, EuroNatur Vice-President Dr Anna-Katharina Wöbse paid tribute to the work of CABS: “We thank you for being here as a delegation, whilst most of your activists are out in the camps, actively protecting barn swallows, robins, spotted flycatchers and all other migratory birds – and with them, a fundamental part of Europe’s natural heritage. In doing so, they are putting their lives on the line: they face abuse, threats, physical violence, shots at with guns, their tyres being punctured and being chased. For this commitment and your fearlessness, we are today awarding the Committee Against Bird Slaughter the EuroNatur Award.”

The Committee also regards this award as recognition for the many volunteers and partner organisations who work along Europe’s migratory routes every year. Despite much progress, the protection of migratory birds remains a major challenge. Every year, millions of birds are still being illegally trapped or shot – an estimated 25 million in the Mediterranean region alone.

In their acceptance speech, the award winners made it clear that successful bird conservation cannot rely on political declarations of intent alone: “Fortunately, a great deal of money is being invested in the protection of migratory birds today. Millions are being channelled into expert reports, conservation plans, conferences and the administrative side of species protection,” said Axel Hirschfeld. “But unfortunately, reality also shows that far too little of these enormous sums is being channelled into the direct, practical fight against trapping and poaching. What use are the best laws, conferences and declarations of intent if there is no one out in the field to take down the nets? Species conservation must not get bogged down in bureaucracy,” said Hirschfeld.

Background information:

• The EuroNatur Award is non-monetary. It recognises outstanding achievements in nature conservation. Previous recipients have included the author Jonathan Franzen, the ‘brave women of Kruščica’ and the municipality of Mals in South Tyrol. The 2026 EuroNatur Award was presented on Thursday, 15 October 2026 at 5 pm on the island of Mainau on Lake Constance.

• The Committee Against Bird Slaughter was founded in Berlin in January 1975. Its first campaigns were protests against bird hunting in Italy, bird trapping in Belgium and the trade in wild birds in Germany. The first practical measures – the collection of illegal bird traps and nets – took place in 1979 in the German-Belgian border region near Aachen. Since 1985, annual migratory bird protection camps have been organised, initially in northern Italy, and subsequently also in northern France, southern Italy, Cyprus and Malta. Throughout the year, between 250 and 300 nature and animal lovers from across Europe take part in well over 20 such camps.

• Despite many successes, the scale of illegal killing of birds in the Mediterranean region remains shocking. A study jointly published by BirdLife International and EuroNatur in May 2025 paints a bleak picture: the vast majority of Mediterranean countries are failing to fulfil their promise to halve the illegal killing, capture and trade of birds by 2030.

Enquires:
Christian Stielow, christian.stielow(at)euronatur.org, Tel.: +49 (0)7732 – 92 72 15