In a recent series of letters, Mark Mifsud Bonnici of St Hubert's Hunters attacked me personally and in public. For this reason, I have chosen to respond to his baseless accusations, but I want to make it clear that I will not be drawn into any further debate regarding this issue after this letter has been published.

In his latest letters published by The Times, Mr Mifsud Bonnici makes the libellous claim that I signed a petition calling for a total ban on hunting in Malta in spite of the fact that the person he refers to is called Andrew and not André. He seems to insist (and The Times continues to give him the floor, and indeed devoted an entire page to this) that for some reason I wrote my name down incorrectly when filing in the petition details. In actual fact, when signing petitions, I am quite careful to spell my name correctly. If one wishes to discuss the spelling of names, then I would like to draw Mr Mifsud Bonnici's attention to how I spelled my name in a separate petition that calls for a hunting ban in Majjistral National Park. There I am, at number 828, and there my name is - André Raine. In the case of the Majjistral petition therefore, yes I certainly signed it, and I wholeheartedly suggest that everyone goes on-line to do so. The web address is http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Majjistral/index.html.

In the case of the Majjistral petition, this petition was circulated by the three NGOs (Din l-Art Ħelwa, Gaia, Nature Trust) managing the park and vouched for by the chairman of the park's managing board. I read the petition carefully and as an individual fully agreed with the sentiments enclosed. I suppose I need to thank Mr Mifsud Bonici and friends for giving this particular petition such much-needed publicity and I would like to take the opportunity to wish the NGOs managing the Majjistral Park every success in their endeavours.

In other Natura 2000 areas the situation may or may not be the same - it needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis. For example, in the management plan that the EU Life Yelkouan Shearwater Project partnership drafted for the Rdum tal-Madonna Natura 2000 site, as BirdLife we have made no attempt to ban hunting on the site, despite being asked by several stakeholders that this be incorporated into the management plan.

Regardless, that I signed the Majjistral petition is of no consequence to BirdLife Malta's overall policy with regards to legal hunting. We are simply asking that Malta respects the Birds Directive, which does not allow spring hunting, and to stop the widespread and ongoing illegal persecution of birds of prey and other protected species. I do not feel that these stated goals are unreasonable - organisations are not normally condemned for asking that a country respects international law. So, for the benefit of Mr Mifsud Bonnici and anyone else who continuously suggests otherwise, I wish to make it very clear that BirdLife Malta is not against legal hunting as permitted by the Birds Directive. I hope that these various individuals finally get this very basic message, as it is one that we have already publically stated on numerous occasions.

Finally I would like to highlight the agreement made in 2004 between BirdLife International and the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation, something which Mr Mifsud Bonnici is always so quick to mention in his letters. Regarding the Birds directive, both organisations agreed to promote the national implementation of this Directive in EU member states and accession countries, as both organisations agree that the Birds directive is an important piece of conservation legislation and that it is the best way to deal with the conservation of wild birds at a European Union level. The Birds Directive specifically states that spring hunting cannot be allowed throughout the European Union, as it is critical that birds returning to breed in the spring are not shot before they have the chance to do so. It is a simple fact that if you do not kill birds before they have a chance to breed, there will be more of them after the breeding season. If Face, as an international organisation that represents seven million hunters in Europe, has agreed to the key concepts inherent in the Birds Directive (which include a ban on spring hunting), then maybe it is about time that Mr Mifsud Bonnici does so as well.