BirdLife Malta today launched a legal challenge to spring hunting in Malta by filing a judicial protest in the Maltese courts, while at the same time in Brussels, a delegation representing 39 MEPs met with EU Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potočnik, to call on the European Commission to suspend any further derogations to allow spring hunting.
In the protest filed with the courts this morning, BirdLife Malta argued that successive Maltese governments have repeatedly failed to satisfy the conditions of Malta’s own National Framework Legislation, which sets out the criteria that must legally be met in order for a spring hunting season to be opened.
“The primary condition that must be met before spring hunting can even be considered to be legal is that there must be no detrimental impact on the European populations of the species hunted,” said Nicholas Barbara, BirdLife Malta’s Conservation Manager. “But the Legislation completely neglects to take account of the unfavourable conservation status of Turtle Doves and Quail in Europe.”
Instead, the Framework Legislation refers incorrectly to the global conservation status of the species. “This is used to justify spring hunting in Malta and it is completely wrong,” said Mr Barbara, “The Framework Legislation itself is based on flawed and unscientific data.”
BirdLife went on to argue that successive spring hunting derogations have systematically failed to meet several other conditions specified by the Framework Legislation.
“The opening of a hunting season in spring for Turtle Dove and Quail is dependent on the number of these birds reported shot and bagged by hunters in autumn,” said Mr Barbara, “but these figures have been shown to be unreliable.”
“The government acknowledges this fact but then continues to base its decision to allow spring hunting on these very same figures.”
He said that during the spring hunting season itself, the failure of the authorities to prevent the widespread illegal killing of protected species year after year under cover of the legal season, and the lack of adequate and verifiable controls and monitoring to limit the numbers of Turtle Dove and Quail killed, both indicated the failure to meet two further conditions of the Legislation.
“We have already raised all of these issues with the Malta Ornis Committee and the Wild Birds Regulations Unit, but they have just been brushed aside”, said Mr Barbara. “It is clear that these serious concerns were not receiving proper consideration by the responsible authorities, so we have been forced to take them to the Judiciary instead.”
Meanwhile, in Brussels, similar arguments were put to the EU Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, on behalf of the 39 MEPs from 11 countries who signed a letter last month calling for the European Commission to immediately suspend any further derogations to allow spring hunting in Malta.
“A public referendum is consistently emerging as the only way spring hunting can be challenged and perhaps it is the best way for the issue to be decided after all - in a fair and democratic poll of Maltese voters,” said Steve Micklewright, BirdLife Malta’s Executive Director.
GOVERNMENT DENIES CLAIMS
In a reaction, the government denied that it “repeatedly failed to satisfy the conditions of Malta’s own National Framework Legislation” and that the Framework Legislation “refers incorrectly to the global conservation status of the species”, which is ostensibly “used to justify spring hunting in Malta”.
The government said Malta has one of the harshest in Europe penalty regimes against illegal shooting and taking of wild birds, with penalties including up to €15,000 fine, imprisonment of up to two years, permanent revocation of license and confiscation.
Malta’s record of prosecution for bird-related crime showed that these penalties are being applied in practice. A case in point was yesterday, when two poachers were been fined a total of €10,000 for shooting a protected Black Winged stilt and had their licence revoked for life and for three years respectively.
Over 97% of all cases of bird-related crime prosecuted with the assistance of the Specialist Enforcement Branch of Wild Birds Regulation Unit resulted in convictions.
A new efficient administrative fines system for minor offences that was introduced in October 2013 showed impressive results in curbing minor infringements which previously used to clog the justice system but were now dealt with swiftly through harsh administrative fines.
"Malta deploys one of the most elaborate and rigorous hunting bag verification and control regimes anywhere in Europe, comprising harsh legal deterrent against potential non-reporting, a system of spot-checks in the field, rigorous data quality controls, exceptionally high rate of hunters’ compliance with their legal obligations to return completed carnet de chasse to the authorities following closure of autumn season (99.6%), an independent scientific monitoring study of bird migration, a real-time reporting system and multiple layers of enforcement of national and individual daily and season’s bag limits."
The government said Malta also had one of the best in the EU track records on the implementation of EU Management Plans for huntable species, including for Turtle dove and Quail;
"Contrary to Birdlife Malta’s claims, at no point does the spring hunting framework regulation refer to “global conservation status”. The Framework for Allowing a Derogation Opening a Spring Hunting Season for Turtle Dove and Quail Regulations (SL 504.94) requires the government to take into account “conservation status of the species” in deciding whether to permit spring hunting season for Turtle Dove and Quail."
The scientific assessment of the latest conservation status of both species prepared by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit and discussed at the Malta Ornis Committee in March considered conservation status of Turtle Dove and Quail at EU level, at pan-European level, and at the global level. This assessment noted a decline in the population status of the two species in some European regions, as well as improvement in conservation status in other regions. The analysis also noted that the magnitude of the latest reported negative trends in the population status of both species is scientifically insignificant (a fraction of a percent change between 2012 and 2013). Moreover, the analysis noted that most Turtle Doves and Quails that migrate over Malta originate in EU Member States that have either stable or increasing populations of these species. This analysis will be published in the coming weeks together with the detailed report on the outcome of spring hunting season.