Promises were not kept, hunters say

The Federation for Hunting and Conservation said yesterday that contrary to promises made to hunters before the general election, traditional hunting had to be eliminated by 2008 and spring hunting for quails and turtle doves would only be allowed for as long as a derogation, renewable every year, continued to be given.

Addressing a news conference, federation president Joe Perici Calascione said that before the election, President Eddie Fenech Adami, then Prime Minister, had written to hunters promising them that trapping would continue even after 2007, whatever those who had a political agenda said.

The Nationalist Party had published adverts promising that hunting in spring and trapping for song birds would continue and new licences would be given after 2007.

EU Commissioner Joe Borg, then Foreign Minister, had written to the association to confirm that trapping would not be stopped after five years.

Mr Perici Calascione said that during a visit by the Nature and Biodiversity Unit of the European Commission earlier this year the federation could confirm that these people had come to Malta to ensure that the stipulated deadlines of the acquis communautaire were being observed.

They wanted to ensure that traditional trapping was eliminated by 2008 and that they were to receive the necessary documentation to study and analyse and decide whether to allow the quail and turtle dove derogation in the coming year.

Mr Perici Calascione said that the statistics which had been prepared by the federation, figures which had been compiled in a scientific manner and which had also been approved by the National Statistics Office, were not used in Malta's EU membership negotiations and the European Commission did not even know they existed.

The federation continued fighting to the end, even after EU membership was decided, and publicly supported a candidate for the European Parliament elections in order to have a more direct contact with what was happening behind closed doors.

But the federation was a democratic organisation and it had to abide by the decision of the majority of the people and, moreover, with that of the majority of Maltese and Gozitan hunters and trappers. So all it could do was continue working within the parameters of the current system.

Lino Farrugia, who had been supported by the federation in the European elections, had obtained 3,119 votes.

The federation, Mr Perici Calascione said, would continue working to safeguard in every legal way one's rights to practise hunting and trapping but the current arena was not that which existed in the past. The rules were different and there was no alternative but to continue the battle under the current regulations.

Earlier in the news conference, Mr Perici Calascione said the federation strongly condemned the breaking of laws and regulations.

He said serious steps would be taken against members found guilty of serious breach of regulations, even by suspending their membership.

At the same time the federation also strongly criticised "certain" officers of the police administrative law enforcement unit who, it said, were paying more attention to minor offences rather than concentrating on illegal hunting.