Solutions to trapping

In the news item BirdLife Records Illegal Trapping In 60 Locations (June 17), BirdLife Malta reports illegal finch trapping recorded all over Malta and Gozo, with detailed accounts of some 90 active trapping sites with the trappers present. The Federation for Hunting and Conservation - Malta (FKNK) has repeatedly condemned all illegal practices, be they hunting or trapping related.

The main issue here is not the illegalities as such. The Maltese trapper cannot help the life-long urge and desire and not practise his socio-cultural passion any longer. The Maltese trapper will willingly accept some sort of sustainable solution to his plight. This plight is not simply a scenario, for example, where the much sought-after seven species of finches are on the brink of extinction and therefore this practice must inevitably stop! No such thing; the international authority on the biodiversity of the biotopes in question scientifically proves the contrary. (IUCN, May 2008).

This plight is not simply because the "botched" EU pre-accession agreement negotiated a five-year transition period. Transition means exactly that, a transition phase, a way forward to establish certain criteria in line with EU regulations - such EU regulations that allow the Spanish, the Italians and the Austrians among others, to sustainably practise their socio-cultural pastime legally and sensibly. The same EU regulations that the head of EU communications in Malta publicly invoked last March, whereas Malta can and may apply the derogation for the continuance of finch capture. This plight is not because a few hides ruin the vista or the local flora. These things are remediable; there are far worse scenarios that ruin Malta's limited countryside that one has to prioritise! The trappers' plight is much worse than a few thousand finches from seven finch species caught annually on our islands. The anthropological aspect of human lifestyle and culture play a much more cardinal role.

BirdLife Malta reports that a pair of linnets (Carduelis cannabina) have successfully nested and that a pair of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) have ventured out of their Buskett stronghold and also nested. Although this is indeed good news, it certainly is not headline news! These two species of finches have been breeding or attempting to breed for decades on our islands. Incidentally the Buskett chaffinch "stronghold" is neither creaking under the weight of fledged chaffinches nor bursting at the seams from flittering baby chaffinches!

Malta has been and still is a stop-over destination for the miniscule percentage of finches that visit the islands annually. Such factual documentation was written down almost 130 years ago by Rev. P. Goodwin in his literary work Birds Of Malta, 1880. BirdLife Malta tends to dictate their knowledge of local finch trapping to the public by making inflated remarks such as "widespread capture", "one illegal trapper can catch most of the target species from a large area", or "trapping is the reason why Malta has no viable breeding population".

BLM's knowledge of finch trapping reeks of extremist sensationalism. Surely BLM know that once a finch "avoids" capture (48 per cent of all attempted finch capture results in no catch - Independent Trapping Survey 2007, commissioned by FKNK), it never re-visits that area twice. Large-scale capture is done illegally, never with legal traditional methods. All illegalities should be dealt with by the relevant authorities.

Indeed BirdLife Malta stresses the point that finches were observed breeding or attempting to do so once the pre-nuptial migration was over. This observation continues to stress the point that post-nuptial trapping (autumn/winter) does not affect finch breeding or its attempts whatsoever, since the 2008 post-nuptial trapping season was still being practised legally at that time. Therefore autumn/winter trapping, as carried out legally in Spain, Italy and Austria, etc, does not constitute a threat to any finches that might want to nest!

FKNK has worked incessantly over the last three years to find a satisfactory and sustainable solution for the continuance of the socio-cultural pastime, long before BLM had started its abolishment campaign. FKNK's officials are also made up of local trappers hailing from all walks of life, who understand the plight of the local trapper, unlike the foreign-led BLM who only understand "total protection, which will only inevitably lead to total destruction". (Stefanoidis, Sense Forestry Management, Greek Hunting Association, 2007).

The sustainable solutions have been presented formally to the relevant authorities, even if working on a voluntary basis with limited funds. Unlike BLM that reaps millions of euro to "rid" Malta once and for all of hunting and trapping, FKNK has the solutions for the government, the public, the trapper and the birds... and, yes, even for BirdLife Malta.