It was a Tuesday, between the two festive weekends. The recorded voice at the other end of an ERA emergency contact number informed angry callers that their offices were closed until January 2.
The Environment Resources Authority’s capacity to enforce environmental regulations went on shut-down over the Christmas-New Year week. Off-roaders on motorcycles celebrated by tearing up and down the clay slopes at Selmun, unperturbed.
The Mellieħa local council had already decided some years ago that “putting up signs to discourage the illegal activity is futile as they are often vandalised or removed within days, if not hours”.
Over the years, the reaction of the police at Mellieħa, responding to call-outs from the protected area of the Selmun coastline, has traditionally been marked by a firm desire to avoid getting their boots muddy.
The police say they carry out regular inspections in the countryside around Mellieħa but it is a game of cat and mouse, as damage to the natural environment worsens with every year.
In one case, officers showed up in their police car after half an hour but would not go further than the end of the paved road. They refused to walk a short distance to a point where off-roaders in Land Rovers could be clearly seen.
Some off-roaders have tried to justify their actions by claiming the right to drive along any track marked on an ordinance survey map, regardless of whether the location is in a protected area or not.
Others believe that they will be forgiven so long as they pick up litter along the way. While positive in itself, this does little to reverse the damage caused to landscape and habitats by off-roaders.
The only police action reported in recent years was when a group of five on “dirt bikes” were stopped for questioning in Selmun. They got off lightly. The police took action against two of them for driving on an asphalted road without being in possession of a valid licence but failed to catch them off-road.
In the early 1990s, things were looking hopeful when environmental legislation began to bring about changes. The Administrative Law Enforcement section of the police force was set up “to support the operations of district police officers in their fight against environmental crime”.
Yet there is no direct reference to the ALE’s role in the control of illegal hunting activities on the Malta Police website, and district police are poorly trained for the task.
The ALE, by their own admission, are mostly taken up with ensuring observance of maritime regulations, providing escort for visiting VIPs and assisting the Ministry of Finance. Tasks related to Veterinary Services, the Health Division, Lands Department and Wireless & Telegraphy Department seem to take up the rest of their time.
Occasionally the ALE are called in to enforce a direct action on a planning contravention, although we haven’t seen this for some time.
During 2017 the government continued its unravelling of hard-won environmental legislation, extending hunting hours at the Majjistral Park to the effective exclusion of the public.
Most of the officers we spoke to on the phone openly declared that the district police would not do anything
As proof that enforcement is lax, we have only to take note of the growing number of illegal bird lures warbling fake birdsong across the land. This illegal practice is going on blatantly and with impunity all over Malta and Gozo.
According to the Committee against Bird Slaughter, a German group that campaigns in Malta, the chances of a trapper being acquitted (or receiving a vastly reduced fine) are more likely if the case is heard in Gozo.
CABS has been active in Lebanon, Cyprus and Italy during the past months. Yet Gozo poses a particular challenge as the activists feel frustrated and harassed by the behaviour of the Victoria courts.
Several of those accused of illegal trapping were acquitted last year. CABS members had supplied video footage of the nets and live decoy birds being used in the closed season. But the magistrate decided to go ahead with the hearing without the key witnesses present, despite having been informed they were unable to attend on the day.
Other Gozo cases due for September had been heard in July without CABS being told about the hearings being brought forward. Three members of a monitoring team who filmed a man trapping finches in the closed season at Qala last March, had to pay triple the amount of the €500 fine for their travel expenses to be present for the hearing. Ironically, none of them were asked to testify.
For the past three years this organisation has been monitoring and reporting to the police on illegal night trapping of the golden plover and other nocturnal bird species on Malta and Gozo during November and December.
Volunteers offered to lead police to the sites where trapping illegalities were ongoing yet they refused to respond to 36 out of 43 reports made regarding the use of night-time bird callers for illegal trapping.
“Most of the officers we spoke to on the phone openly declared that the district police would not do anything, arguing that they were not trained for this, it was too dangerous and they were busy.”
The activists were referred by the district police to the ALE but were unable to contact them during the night hours when illegalities were taking place.
In a letter sent last month to Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, CABS president Heinz Schwarze complained of a “systematic obstruction of justice”.
“Such a low prosecution rate is nothing less than a declaration of bankruptcy of the Malta Police Force in dealing with a severe conservation problem,” he said.