European hunters federation FACE underlined the positive role of hunting in wildlife conservation and habitat restoration and claimed its right to be seen as a fully-fledged environmental organisation.

During a conference ‘A New Vision for the Birds Directive and the Positive Role of Hunting’, organised with the European Commission, Environment Commissioner Janez Potcnik said that for over 35 years, the Birds Directive helped protect Europe's wild birds with responsible and sustainable hunting also an important role, supported by agreements between hunters and bird conservation organisations.

One such agreement, he said, was that between BirdLife and FACE.

The agreement, signed 10 years ago, was characterised by constructive dialogue between the two organisations. FACE stands firm on its commitment, taken with BirdLife International, not to support initiatives aimed at amending the text of the Birds Directive, believing that such initiatives would only weaken the current provisions of the directive, which was not in the interest of either party.

“It's encouraging to see the hunting community adopting such a pro-active approach to bird conservation and giving such high-profile recognition to the EU nature legislation,” Mr Potcnik said.

The conference stressed that hunting and the Birds Directive were not in contradiction but hunting and hunters actively contributed to the conservation of wild birds, habitats and biodiversity.

Speakers gave examples of projects and initiatives carried out by hunters aimed at the conservation of wild bird species, habitats restoration, and improvement of the scientific knowledge of migratory as well as land birds, often in cooperation with other environmental stakeholders.

Presentations highlighted how legislation alone was not enough for wildlife conservation, and cooperation between citizens and institutions had to be pursued.

Malta was represented during the conference by government representatives and hunters federation president and CEO Joe Perici Calascione and Lino Farrugia, respectively.