BirdLife urges on PM to take action on bird slaughter

Birdlife Malta has written an open letter to the prime minister to complain about the hunting situation and the state of law enforcement.

The society has also written to EU Commissioner for Environment Margot Wallström informing her of the prevailing situation.

In its letter to Dr Fenech Adami the society said:

It is with the utmost concern that BirdLife Malta draws your attention to the continuous widespread flouting of the bird protection laws that is occurring on a daily basis in our country, especially since the opening of the hunting season on September 1, 2003.

BirdLife Malta is equally concerned at the refusal by your administration to acknowledge this sad state of affairs and by the apparent lack of decisive action to tackle this problem.

Throughout this month, members of the public have been repeatedly bringing to our attention the continued flouting of the bird protection laws.

In particular, many of these reports concern the illegal killing of bird species that are listed in Annexe l of the EU Birds Directive 79/409/EEC, such as honey buzzard, Pernis apivorus, marsh harrier, Circus aeroginosus, osprey, Pandion haliaeetus, lesser kestrel, Falco naumanni, night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, little egret, Egretta garzetta and purple heron, Ardea purpurea.

The situation has now reached such intolerable proportions that in the week ending September 19, as the migration of raptors reached its peak, reports of hundreds of shots fired at birds of prey in a single afternoon were commonplace.

This proves that the current law enforcement resources are not adequate to deal with a situation that has been left unchecked for far too long.

The Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) section of the police have shown dedication to bring offenders to book, but the illegal hunting is so widespread that it is clearly beyond their control.

Furthermore, BirdLife Malta fails to understand why Gozo continues to be 'out of bounds' for the ALE. Indeed the society has been informed officially, by senior police officials, that it is useless to expect any collaboration from the Gozo police in enforcing hunting regulations.

For the past 23 years BirdLife Malta has been repeatedly calling for the setting up of environment wardens with executive powers to deal with the illegal hunting and trapping issue as well as with other environmental issues.

Furthermore, more recently, BirdLife Malta has repeatedly called for an increase in personnel and resources for the Administrative Law Enforcement section so that it can deal more effectively with the lawbreakers. These pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

We have witnessed the continued systematic weakening of the bird protection laws by successive governments, without any commitment to mitigate these measures by effective actions to curb the abuses.

In the course of the EU negotiations relating to hunting and trapping, your administration negotiated to maintain certain current Maltese hunting and trapping practices.

In return for 'concessions' granted by the Commission to Malta, you pledged, among other things, to ensure the bird protection laws are observed and enforced.

It is in this light, that BirdLife Malta draws your attention to the pitiful state of the current law enforcement structure that is resulting in the massacre of hundreds of protected bird species every year in our islands.

There exists no effective deterrent to curb the illegal hunting.

To this extent, BirdLife Malta has written to the EU Commissioner for the Environment, Mrs Margot Wallström, informing her of the prevailing situation.

As things stand BirdLife Malta fails to see how the Maltese government is going to honour its promise of bird protection as committed by the Maltese negotiators with the EU.

If protected birds are being shot in autumn when hunting is allowed, how can we reasonably foresee that the law will be observed in spring, when hunters and trappers are expected to 'only' target two species, the turtle dove and quail?

In the circumstances, the use of article nine of the Birds Directive to allow hunting in spring is only a farce - a loophole to permit the systematic destruction of thousands of migratory birds flying back to their breeding grounds.

BirdLife Malta has made it clear from the outset that it opposes the granting of any concessions that are against the spirit and provisions of the EU Birds Directive.

In addition we contend that unless Government takes decisive action, we must call on the Commission to renege on the concession allowing hunting in spring and to take immediate measures to control hunting and trapping in autumn.

The letter was signed by Joseph M. Mangion, BirdLife president.