JOHANNESBURG - Conservationists launched a three-year project on Tuesday to protect millions of migrating birds which are indiscriminately targeted by hunters in North Africa and the Middle East.

"The number of migratory birds being killed has increased to an almost industrial scale in some countries ... Hunters kill millions of birds annually as they migrate through the Mediterranean region," British-based BirdLife International said in a statement.

"A significant proportion are shot or trapped in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. Most are species that breed in Europe and winter in Africa," it said.

Bird hunting is an important socio-economic activity in the region and involves hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom regard the activity as an almost sacred right.

BirdLife said the methods used by the hunters were often indiscriminate -- so a white stork migrating from southern Africa to Europe can be killed as easily as gamebirds such as ducks and geese.

Various species of small songbirds are also being slain en masse in the region.

Shooting, trapping with nets, and poison are all used.

"Increased availability of guns and cheap ammunition, easier access to remote areas ... higher disposable incomes and increased leisure time and diminishing populations of native game species" were spurring the killings, it added.

Awash with the automatic assault weapons of war, the region is also loaded with the shotguns favoured by bird hunters.

BirdLife said a staggering 20 million to 25 million shotgun cartridges were sold annually in Lebanon, which contained lead shot harmful to the environment.

The project, in partnership with the Association "Les Amis des Oiseaux" (AAO) in Tunisia and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon, will attempt to:

-- address some of the inadequacies of hunting legislation and enforcement in Lebanon and Tunisia and draft amendments.

-- encourage alternatives to lead shot.

-- raise public awareness.

-- build partnerships with national hunting associations. "The project's overall aim is to strengthen the management of bird hunting and to reduce excessive, indiscriminate and illegal hunting in the region," said David Thomas, head of BirdLife's Site Action Unit.

Story by Ed Stoddard