Birdlife president Geoffrey Saliba.

Birdlife has a new team at the helm as it intensifies its anti-spring hunting efforts in a year that is likely to have a referendum on the matter.

Geoffrey Saliba was appointed president while Malta Today managing editor Saviour Balzan was appointed vice president.

Mr Balzan will also represent Birdlife on the Ornis Committee, a government advisory board that includes hunters and other experts.

Mr Saliba takes over from Joseph Mangion, who according to a Birdlife statement retired from the post he occupied for 12 years.

“Mr Mangion has voluntarily stepped down from his leadership responsibilities in the organisation,” Birdlife said, quoting the outgoing president wishing the new leadership all the best and assuring them of his support.

Mr Saliba has been involved in the environmental protection sector since 2007 and worked extensively on illegal hunting and trapping issues.

But he was also involved in the management of four EU-funded environmental projects, bringing to the organisation a new impetus to strengthen the bird conservation aspect of Birdlife’s work.

For Mr Balzan this will be a return to his roots in the environmental lobby. He was an active member of Żgħażagħ għall-Ambjent in the 1980s and went on to found the green party Alternattiva Demokratika in the 1990s.

During the EU accession talks Mr Balzan was also roped in as a government advisor during hunting negotiations.

Birdlife forms part of a coalition of environmental groups that is collecting signatures to force an abrogative referendum that would spell the end of spring hunting.