The government and the Ornis committee

We wonder how much longer the Prime Minister will tolerate the Ornis farce.

The item FKNK Says Government Pulled Out Of Ornis Meeting On Trapping (July 15) reported that the hunters and trappers' federation (FKNK) has accused the government of using the Ornis Committee Malta as a smokescreen and of delaying decisions on hunting.

There have been occasions in the past when it was BirdLife Malta accusing the government.

There is no escaping the fact that, right from its creation, the Ornis committee has been a non-starter.

The perception is that the committee is a smokescreen for the government and a very poor smokescreen at that.

The Ornis Committee Malta was set up to deal mainly with hunting and trapping issues. If the hunters' and trappers' representatives were to decide not to participate, the committee would, sooner or later, have to be dissolved, or risk ridicule, as was the case when it decided to ban duck hunting on land.

This has nothing to do with the integrity of the committee's chairman, the secretary, all the government-appointed members and the environment director who deserve respect if only for their "refereeing" role.

Rather, it has much to do with the kind of arguments BirdLife Malta representatives constantly raise at meetings. BirdLife Malta and its negative attitude has no place on a committee whose main responsibility concerns hunting and trapping.

At the pre-EP election "secret" meeting in Buskett, Lawrence Gonzi expressed his feeling that neither hunters nor BirdLife trust him. The very set-up of the Ornis committee is one good reason. Decisions on hunting and trapping should not be dependent on a body whose members include people who are on record as planning to have hunting and trapping banned.

If the government has good intentions regarding the future of hunting and trapping, the Ornis committee in its present form should be dissolved. As far as hunting and trapping is concerned, the committee should be replaced by a hunting and trapping committee as proposed by the FKNK to Dr Gonzi and it is up to him to decide.

The proposals, based on "compensatory measures", are in line with the principles of sustainable hunting as endorsed by the European Union. Consequently, the government should support and implement them without further dithering.