The New Arab investigation prompts Egypt to ban touristic bird hunting in New Valley governorate

On September 1 the Egyptian ministry of environment issued a decree that removed the New Valley governorate from the list of regions in which touristic bird hunting is permitted for the 2025/26 season (that is from October 1 until March 31). 

The decree (no. 242) followed a 15-month investigation by The New Arab (TNA), published in April, which shed light on Maltese hunters travelling to Egypt to exploit weak enforcement and kill species protected by EU law, including in the New Valley.

New Valley, Egypt’s largest governorate, had been added to the list of governorates where hunting was permitted in August 2024. This allowed foreign tourists to travel to the region to shoot birdlife.

Khaled al-Nubi, the director of the NGO Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), previously described the 2024 move to allow hunting in the governorate as a “catastrophe” for the delicate oasis ecosystems to which the region is home.

These oases, including Dakhla, Farafra, and Kharga, support both migratory and resident bird species, many of which are protected under both Egyptian and EU law.

Migratory birds are declining in large numbers and one in ten species that use the African-Eurasian flyway face extinction.

In a statement posted to NCE’s Facebook page, the NGO welcomed the announced changes, describing them as “a fundamental step towards strengthening legal frameworks and policies concerning the protection of nature and wildlife”, while calling on authorities to “strictly” enforce the new laws.

Historically, the enforcement of hunting regulations has been unevenly applied in Egypt, to the benefit of Maltese poachers and unscrupulous travel companies, as revealed by TNA.

Since the publication of our investigation, however, the Egyptian government has pledged to redouble efforts to enhance avian ecotourism, including the development of new birdwatching sites.

The ministerial decree also explicitly prohibits hunting on Lake Nasser between October 2025 and January 2026, subject to reconsideration for the remaining period of the hunting season, but conservationists told TNA that the lake’s vast size makes policing hunters difficult. 

Hunting for tourists will still be permitted in Fayoum, Sohag, Asyut, Beni Suef, and Minya governorates.

Egypt has been party to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) since 1983, when it came into force under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to protect migratory species.

A landmark UNEP report published in February 2024 showed that more than one fifth of species listed by the CMS are threatened by extinction.