BirdLife Malta said today that it was appalled by the agreement announced yesterday between the Labour Party and the FKNK hunters' federation.
Steve Micklewright, BirdLife Executive Director said: “While we are grateful to Joseph Muscat for ensuring we received a full copy of the text of the agreement he has signed with the FKNK, we are appalled by what it might mean if it is fully implemented.”
While the carefully worded agreement states that any changes will be made ‘in conformity with the European framework’, and it commits hunters and the PL to take ‘serious measures’ on the ‘enforcement of laws so that in no way illegalities are tolerated’, the six-point agreement contains commitments that appear to go against this.
“While committing to increasing enforcement is welcome, the detail of the agreement does not explicitly state how this will happen. We would at the very least have expected PL to force a commitment from FKNK to expel members who are convicted of illegal bird hunting and for their hunting licences to be revoked forever, but there is no such commitment. We will of course push for this if PL are elected to government.”
Similarly the agreement includes an explicit commitment that ‘a correct derogation is applied on the traditional trapping of finches and every other species of bird specified in the relative regulations.’
Mr Micklewright said finch-trapping was expressly forbidden under European law and Malta committed to phase out finch trapping on its accession to the EU.
"If a derogation is applied it will be a huge backward step for the conservation of wild birds in Malta and will inevitably result in action against Malta by the EU.”
He said that in recent days BirdLife Malta had lobbied strongly for the removal of any commitment to end the two-week September 3pm curfew on bird hunting to protect birds of prey from illegal hunting during the peak autumn migration period, and such a commitment was not explicitly stated in the PL/FKNK agreement.
“While we are relieved that the removal of the 3pm curfew is not explicitly stated, the agreement does include a consultative review of regulations such as this. We hope that the Labour Party will include BirdLife Malta in such consultations and consider the impact that removing essential wildlife protection measures would have on Malta’s and Europe’s protected birds,” Mr Micklewright said.
He regretted that the agreement did not tackle issues such as the impact on free and safe access to the countryside for the people.