Hunters are asking the government not to succumb to pressure on spring hunting put by European Commission officials whose job it is to be “extremely cautious”.
The president of the hunting federation, Joe Perici Calascione, insisted the EU’s directives must be followed but Malta should be treated like other member states. Hunters should be allowed to shoot small numbers of birds under strict controls.
The FKNK believes the government’s legal framework, as decided last year, is already “unnecessarily restrictive”.
“The government should accept our position and not just accept the European Commission’s criticism. The Commission will always criticise... They will be overly cautious, to the extreme.”
His comments come after The Times reported European Commission officials saying they expected Malta to “stick strictly” to EU rules on the imminent spring hunting season, saying they would be keeping a watchful eye on decisions.
The government is still considering recommendations by Ornis, its advisory committee, but draft recommendations, which were made public by the conservation group Birdlife, called for an extended season.
In fact, Dr Perici Calascione expects the government to opt for the maximum numbers allowed by its legal framework.
This would mean a season where 11,000 turtle doves and 5,000 quails could be shot. Last year, the government opted for 9,000 turtle doves and 2,500 quails.
Dr Perici Calascione believes the government’s legal framework is “arbitrary” and the FKNK’s own calculations, based on EU directives, reached different conclusions.
The FKNK also wants last year’s three-week season to be extended to a month, including Sundays.
“Give us what is legally our right and not only will we not complain but we will make sure any illegal activities are kept to a bare minimum, if at all. If you allow legal hunters have a satisfactory shoot, it will be more effective than all the police force.”
However, Dr Perici Calascione acknowledged that this was a slow process. “We know we have to pass through this hassle. We know we have to wait and be patient. It’s a process and a learning curve.”
Meanwhile, Birdlife, which believes Maltese hunters cannot be trusted with a spring hunting season, when birds migrate for breeding, has criticised the Ornis committee’s recommendations, which are “far wider” than last year’s.
“We feel no season should take place because it does not make sense to shoot birds that are going to breed,” said president Joe Mangion.
Though the season’s parameters might seem possible on paper, the lack of enforcement presented a completely different scenario “in practice”.
He added that the Ornis committee – which was very evidently pro-government – acted in a “negative” and “non-transparent” way. Chairman Louis Cilia attended the committee with pre-drafted calculations, without giving enough chance for the committee members to make the necessary checks, he said.
Birdlife had even called for Mr Cilia’s resignation on the matter.
Mr Cilia was last week unanimously confirmed as the committee’s chairman after he agreed to put his position to a vote of confidence. (Birdlife did not attend that meeting.)
However, he says the proposals he presented to the committee were just “draft recommendations”.
Mr Cilia has now presented the recommendations to Environment Minister Mario de Marco.
“I’m very confident of the legality of the proposals. We stuck to the legal notice issued by the government in 2011,” he said.
Mr Cilia refused to give any more details about the recommendations to leave the minister free to take the final decision based on any other advice he may receive.
However, he pointed out that sticking to last year’s legal notice did not automatically mean having the same parameters of last year’s spring hunting season. The figures were calculated on a formula that depended on how many birds were shot in autumn, he said.
The recommendations also propose stricter measures of enforcement, he added.