Updated - adds hunters' reaction
The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (Cabs) has written to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat promising to employ every legal means to put an end to spring hunting in Malta.
In a statement this morning, it said it will be sending 20 bird guards to Malta and Gozo for this year’s spring hunting season, the organisation said today.
It said in a statement that the bird protection camp will run from April 19 to 30.
As in previous years roost areas of protected birds of prey, storks and herons would be monitored around the clock to protect them from poachers. Trapping sites would also be monitored and bird trapping activity would be reported to the environmental police, it said.
Cabs said that operations this year would be concentrated on the poaching hotspots identified during previous camps, including the area of the international airport, Delimara and Gozo.
The costs of the camp, nicknamed 'Operation Skyfall´ is expected to reach €18,000 and would be covered by private donations and a grant from the German Foundation Pro Biodiversity.
Cabs said that last week it wrote to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and promised that it would employ every legal means to put an end to spring hunting on Malta.
The organisation said it received firm support for its efforts in this direction from the German Minister for the Environment, Peter Altmaier. He confirmed in a reply to Cabs that the killing of migrant bird species with unfavourable conservation status totally negated the efforts to preserve these species in Germany.
He addressed the matter in March this year in a communication to the European Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik and asked him to check whether member states were acting in contravention of the EU Birds Directive.
Cabs said that Malta could once again come under close scrutiny by the Commission for permitting hunting of turtle dove and quail, above all during pre-nuptial migration.
France and Italy were also being criticised for their active or tacit tolerance of hunting of endangered wader and song bird species.
Cabs insisted that the turtle dove was a highly endangered species in Europe with its population in Germany declining by more than 67 per cent since 1990.
Studies from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom arrived at similar results.
It said that the birds that migrated over Malta in spring came from these very populations.
HUNTERS' REACTION
In a reaction, San Umbertu hunters' society said it was imperative that hunters reported any form of abuse on the dedicated 119 telephone number. Reports on this number would be treated with strict confidence.
"This derogation for the limited spring hunting of Turtle dove and Quail, like all other previous spring hunting derogations is applied as a result of the European Court ruling of September 2009. The Maltese authorities have put in force adequate measures of enforcement to ensure the strictly supervised criterion required during such derogation. The cooperation of all hunters to report abuse is being solicited," the association said.
"We urge all hunters not to give in to the provocation of those opposing spring hunting. In total breach of their right to privacy all hunters are being watched, filmed and monitored by The Committee Against Bird Slaughter CABS and BirdLife Malta who have pledged to eradicate spring hunting and declare they will use every legal means possible to end the legal application of a derogation by Malta’s government in accordance with the European Birds Directive. We trust their actions are similarly monitored for illegal activity by the forces of law."