No more bird-trapping after 2008

Trapping of birds will definitely have to stop by the end of 2008 and there is no way that the present concession negotiated during Malta's accession talks will be renewed after this date, a delegation of Bird Protection Belgium, currently lobbying against spring hunting and trapping in Malta, was told by officials from the legal services of the Commission's directorate for the environment.

According to information given by the government following its conclusion of membership negotiations, bird trapping could continue once a number of measures were implemented by 2008. These included a study to assess the sustainability of trapping of finches, that a full captive breeding system is established and trappers are trained on breeding, that all trapping sites are registered and that during the period of study no new trapping licences will be issued.

However from the declaration made by the legal services it now emerges that even if Malta puts all these measures in place, trapping will still not be permitted after 2008.

Following the meeting in Brussels, Huges Fanal, director of Bird Protection Belgium, claimed that the Commission officials made it clear that "the trapping concession was only a one-time agreement and there is no way at all that it may be extended further.

During the meeting, BPB officials claimed that Malta is also failing to implement the measures related to trapping as stipulated during the negotiations and which were part and parcel of the 'trapping concession' given until 2008.

With regard to spring hunting, which it also wants to stop, Bird Protection Belgium said that the Commission's legal officials made it clear that the EU did not agree to any concession over spring hunting in Malta. They said that spring hunting is only permitted because of a 'legal' unilateral decision taken by the Maltese authorities under the specific regulation of the Birds directive.

Lolita Szabo, one of BPB's main campaigners, accused the Maltese government of giving the wrong impression that the EU accepted spring hunting. "Since the accession negotiations were closed (October 1, 2002), Maltese authorities have persisted in confusing the interpretation of the outcome of the negotiations on the hunting and trapping issue, insisting that spring hunting as it stands was "accepted" by the EU and "conceded" to Malta during the accession negotiations. This is not true."

She said the Commission's legal services clarified that Maltese spring hunting is permitted under a derogation to the Birds Directive, which has to meet the requirements and should be subjected to the strict control and the agreement of the European Commission.

"To justify its decision, Malta is obliged to present a report to the Commission by the end of the year, explaining how it justifies the derogation on spring hunting of Turtle Doves and Quails. These are already being largely hunted over five months, from early September to end of January in Malta and therefore the derogation has the sole purpose of extending the period in the case of a recreational hunting and with regard to species that already have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe," the campaigner observed.

Meanwhile BPB is intensifying its campaign at the European Commission and the European Parliament with further meeting planned in the coming weeks.

At the same time an international petition against Maltese spring hunting and trapping is continuing to gather support with BPB claiming that it has already gathered 180,000 signatures, including those of 3,000 Maltese.