European Hunters Devastate Egypt's Migratory Birds, a 15-months long cross-border investigation by Mahmoud Elsobky and Wael El-Sayegh, and published by the The New Arab, Mongabay, and The Shift News, led to a decree, issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Environment, to ban tourist hunting in the New Valley governorate for the 2025/26 season (1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026), and impose a temporary ban on Lake Nasser until January 2026
The journalists had traced how Maltese hunters were exploiting the weak enforcement of Egyptian conservation laws: smugglers with freezers full of protected species, trophy-posting on social media, and grotesque collections of stork skins in Malta. Among other findings, it pointed out to species being illegally killed in the New Valley.
The investigation also underlined how EU-funded conservation efforts are being undermined by European poachers operating just beyond its borders, and destroying bird populations in Egypt.
The new governmental ban applies to all forms of bird hunting, including migratory and resident species.
The investigation was supported by Journalismfund's Environmental Investigative Journalism grant programme.
On the right: A group of Maltese hunters is posing with 592 birds they hunted alongside their local Egyptian hunting guide in Fayoum, Egypt. Copyright: Facebook/fair use.
- The New Arab investigation prompts Egypt to ban touristic bird hunting in New Valley governorate, The New Arab, 02/09/2025
- A ban issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Environment for hunting birds in the New Valley and Lake Nasser for 2025/2026 hunting season, in the Ministerial decree 242, 02/09/2025
- A statement from the Egyptian Society on Nature Protection, 02/09/2025
- Egypt bans fishing in Lake Nasser and all nature reserves and oases, Al Gomhuria 02/09/2025
- The decision to prevent the hunting of birds in Lake Nasser and the New valley, El Mashhad, 02/09/2025
- Note of the Egyptian Society for the protection of nature with regards to the Ministerial Decree 242, 02/09/2025
