Several dilapidated trapping and hunting structures within a Natura 2000 site at Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park have been removed

The Environment Ministry said the operation was carried out by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit in collaboration with the management of Il-Majjistral Park, MEPA and FKNK.

Environment Minister Leo Brincat said this was an example of cooperation between hunters and conservationists towards the conservation of biodiversity in a non-confrontational manner.

Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes said he hoped that this would not be a one-off occasion. 

He said a major strengthening of legal controls over trapping activities would be announced next week.

In a reaction, Birdlife said the removal of illegal hunting and trapping structures from public land and protected natural habitats should be a top priority for the government’s environment directorates, but that did not excuse plans to reintroduce environmentally damaging practices like finch trapping.

“It is highly disingenuous of the government to try to spin that fact that finally NGOs have been given permission to try to undo some of the damage done by decades of hunting and trapping and use it to claim that their plans to reintroduce environmentally damaging practices such as finch trapping are somehow supporting conservation efforts,” said Steve Micklewright, BirdLife Malta’s Executive Director.

He said BirdLife had submitted reports to MEPA documenting hundreds of such structures built without planning permission or consideration of their impact on the environment in ecologically sensitive and protected Natura 2000 areas.

“Almost every coastal cliff-top area around the islands is dotted with these illegal structures built on rare Xaghri, Maquis and Garrigue habitats,” said Christian Debono, BirdLife’s Conservation and Policy Officer.

“The successful proposal for the removal of these structures from Majjistral Park offers hope that environmental reparations will at last be undertaken at other similarly afflicted sites, such as Mizieb, Ahrax tal-Mellieha and Ghar-Lapsi.”

 

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