Government advised to allow trapping past December 31

The Ornis committee has recommended that the autumn trapping season opens for a period beyond December 31 on the basis of advice given to it by the Attorney General, even though the EU Birds Directive bans trapping after that date.

Under the directive, trapping can only be allowed if Malta justifies a derogation from the Birds Directive with the European Commission, something which, according to Birdlife Malta, the government will not be able to do.

The conservation group, in fact, insisted yesterday that the dates, if accepted by the government, would be in breach of the directive.

The decision by the committee, the official body tasked with making recommendations on the hunting and trapping seasons, was taken late on Thursday evening but officially announced yesterday.

The committee is advising the Prime Minister (as the minister responsible for the sector) that hunting from land should be allowed from September 1 to January 31 while that at sea should close on the same day but start a month later.

It also recommends that the trapping of seven songbird species as referred to specifically in Malta's EU accession treaty should be allowed between October 1 and December 31, 2008, when this special derogation in the treaty expires.

However, more controversially, the committee is also recommending that trapping of turtle dove and quail should extend past December 31 and be allowed between September 1 and January 31 along with that for song thrush and golden plover between October 20 and January 10.

This last recommendation is in breach of the Birds Directive as the country could only have such a trapping season if granted a specific derogation by the European Commission, Bir dlife Malta president Joseph Mangion insisted yesterday.

The committee justified its recommendation on the basis of advice it was given from the Attorney General last year, when he told the committee that, given that the Commission had not taken action against Malta when it opened the season previously, one can "therefore assume that if the circumstances remained the same then the same conditions should exist to justify the application of the mentioned derogation and therefore it does not appear that there is a reason why one should think that the Commission should not accept the derogation which is being invoked".

However, Mr Mangion, pointing to the pending court case the EU has instituted against Malta on the opening of the spring hunting season, said "the government has no basis on which to justify such a (trapping) derogation and the Commission may well initiate infringement proceedings against us if we allow trapping during this period."

In fact, Birdlife is also criticising the fact that the committee had once again taken a decision without having any scientific data at hand, a point on which the conservation group has been harping on for several years now.

The Hunters' Federation, which recently criticised Birdlife for publicly making a similar argument while the debate was still going on within the Ornis Committee, said the conservation group's statements were merely an act of scaremongering.

The FKNK questioned the logic behind accepting that a species of bird may be shot but not trapped and kept alive in captivity during the same open period.

But on this point, Mr Mangion said: "The Birds Directive is what it is, it's irrelevant whether we think it makes sense or not. The point is that if we give this the go-ahead we will be breaching it and exposing ourselves to more infringement procedures."

The recommendations will now be reviewed by Lawrence Gonzi who will be responsible for the final decision on the autumn season.