Last Thursday the police showed up at the Għadira nature reserve. They did not march in to apprehend a hunter who had managed to get in by stealth, but wanted, instead, to inspect a rescued protected bird.

This newspaper sent a reporter to question why our enforcement authorities had gone to a reserve which is known to provide a haven for protected species. Their reply left us none the wiser. On the contrary, it reflected the poor state of enforcement in Malta.

Ray Vella, a well-known nature reserve warden, rescued a flamingo from Paradise Bay on Wednesday. He had been called by concerned members of the public who knew that its chances of survival were minimal given the willingness in Malta to shoot such a bird. Birdlife immediately alerted the authorities about it.

The next day, police from the Administrative Law Enforcement section headed to Mr Vella’s home before going to the nature reserve to speak to him.

Mr Vella said this was tantamount to “intimidation and harassment”, a thoroughly credible claim at a time when the government has given freer rein to the hunting community. The police’s actions are likely to have repercussions. Members of the public will now be naturally disinclined to take any injured protected birds to Birdlife in case the authorities try to (mis)use the law to act against them.

Most reports of bird shooting are routed directly to the Birdlife offices. This is the way it’s been done for years because they are the experts in the field. What is worrying is that this incident appears to be the latest in a concerted attempt to hide hunting illegalities from the public.

Are we wrong to ask whether the government and the police are using such tactics to report lower offence figures to the EU?

Are we wrong to ask whether the authorities are trying to silence Birdlife from making such offences public? It would, after all, tie in nicely with the government’s claim that it has improved enforcement measures against illegal hunting.

But there are other reasons that lend credence to Mr Vella’s claim of intimidation.

Since the Labour Party was elected to government, members of the police’s Administrative Law Enforcement, with years of experience in the very delicate wildlife enforcement field, have been transferred. We do not yet know if the officials that replaced them are qualified for the job or merely voted for Labour at the last election.

It is also pertinent to point that two weeks ago this newspaper revealed that Birdlife was going to be charged with an alleged breach of Data Protection simply because a BBC journalist shot a series of videos about illegal hunting in Malta.

Meanwhile, a magistrate recently ordered action to be taken against six Birdlife members who were photographed holding dead birds to highlight illegal hunting in 2012. As our back page story today confirms, the charges are ludicrous because Birdlife volunteers are going to be charged with laws intended for hunters and trappers.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the government persists with spring hunting and once again reopened the trapping season in breach of EU law. Moreover, the government’s suggestion to postpone the local elections planned for 2015 has been viewed by many environmentalists as an attempt to placate the hunting lobby ahead of the referendum on spring hunting.

And why is this happening? Because we have a government that is prepared to accept lawlessness, provided it keeps pockets of society happy.

See also http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140907/local/bird-lovers-to-be-charged.534739

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