Trappers are unlikely to have a five-year ban on finch trapping lifted this year, according to a top hunting official.
Lino Farrugia, general secretary of the hunting federation FKNK, said he was “not hopeful” the Government would allow trapping for finches, which stopped being practised in 2009 after a transitional period agreed with the EU expired.
“It seems the Government is not yet prepared for it, at least these are the indications we are getting,” Mr Farrugia said when contacted yesterday in the wake of a stormy meeting of the Ornis Committee, a consultative body.
The hunting federation wants the Government to apply a derogation and open an autumn/winter finch trapping season. It made its proposal during Tuesday’s Ornis Committee meeting.
However, Mr Farrugia confirmed the proposal was not discussed because the meeting focused on the opening of a trapping season for golden plover and song thrush.
It seems the Government is not yet prepared for it
Limited trapping for the two birds was allowed last year and, according to Mr Farrugia, Ornis had recommended the same be done this year.
However, the trapping of finches remains controversial.
Mr Farrugia would not give details of the FKNK’s proposal but a document on the subject he co-authored for the federation two years ago had spoken of a derogation that would limit live finch capture to a maximum of 60 days between October 7 and December 7.
The FKNK document had argued for the application of a derogation to trap seven finch species: greenfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch, linnet, siskin, serin and hawfinch.
Mr Farrugia said he expected finch trapping to be discussed at another Ornis meeting but harboured little hope trappers would get what they wanted this year.
Nicholas Barbara, Birdlife conservation manager, said the organisation was against any form of trapping because it went against the Birds’ Directive.
He insisted that last year’s trapping derogation for song thrush and golden plover was not applied correctly.
“The SMS reporting method adopted by the Government did not reap positive results to determine the correct number of birds that were caught.”
Mr Barbara said trapping was ecologically more destructive than hunting because it was a more efficient way of capturing birds from the wild.
Multiple birds could be captured at one go with a single net, he added.
The SMS method of reporting caught birds adopted by the Government did not reap positive results
On the controversial finch trapping, Birdlife saw no scope to go back in time after finches stopped being caught in 2009, he added.
Tuesday’s Ornis Committee meeting was characterised by Birdlife’s walkout after it objected to the presence of Joseph Lia, who was there in his capacity as member of the government-appointed Wild Birds Regulation Unit.
Mr Lia is a former FKNK official and also co-authored the federation’s finch trapping report in 2011.
Birdlife accused him of a conflict of interest and described the trapping proposals in front of the Ornis Committee as “an inside job” between hunters.
Mr Lia presented the Government’s proposal for the trapping of song thrush and golden plover.
The Government in turn accused Birdlife of discriminating against a public official who had the right to be in a voluntary organisation.
But the bird conservation group yesterday turned the tables on the Government, accusing it of being discriminatory by handpicking staff for the wild birds unit.
Birdlife insisted Mr Lia had “too great a conflict of interest to be employed within the unit”.