Environment Minister accused of legitimising 'mismanaged' decision

Birdlife Malta has accused Environment Minister George Pullicino of legitimising a "mismanaged" decision to open the hunting season yesterday without a set date for its termination.

By deciding to open the hunting season, Mr Pullicino has endorsed the "mismanagement" of the Ornis Committee, an advisory body set up by the minister to advise on hunting and bird protection.

BirdLife is demanding that the autumn hunting season is postponed until the Ornis Committee decides on the opening and closing dates within the set legal framework.

The bone of contention is a meeting of the Ornis Committee held on August 9, which established the opening and ending dates of the autumn hunting season from September 1 to January. However, the hunters' association objected to the decision claiming the procedure was incorrect.

But BirdLife said that if the decision taken by the committee is invalid, as claimed by the hunters' federation and accepted by the chairman of the committee, then the hunting season could not start before the committee meets again - around September 20. Still, the chairman of the Ornis Committee recommended that the hunting season is opened as per Legal Notice 41 of 2003 and that a closing date for the same season will be decided at the next Ornis Committee meeting later this month.

"We are in a position where the chairman of the Ornis Committee made a recommendation without informing the other members of the committee and our minister, who is supposed to work for the environment, rushes in to exercise his authority to legitimise this decision," BirdLife said. It said it only became aware of the hunters' objection last Wednesday.

BirdLife insisted that Mr Pullicino's decision was in breach of Legal Notice 79 of 2006, whereby the Ornis Committee has to recommend the hunting season dates at least six weeks before its opening.

The organisation accused the minister of trying to appease the hunters rather than act in the interest of the environment and the will of the majority of the people who oppose hunting.

BirdLife had demanded that hunting in September would stop in the afternoon in order to better protect birds of prey and that the season should come to a close in early January 2007, as some birds start migrating back to their breeding grounds in Europe before the end of January. The EU Birds' Directive forbids hunting of birds both during the breeding season as well as during the return migration to their breeding grounds.

"Illegal hunting has become the order of the day, and law enforcement has deteriorated considerably," BirdLife president Joseph Mangion told The Times.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Environment Ministry had no comment to make.