The statement by an Environment Ministry spokesman, in the report entitled Doves In Catastrophic Decline (December 14), claiming that the spring hunting season in Malta could not “in any manner influence the population trends of turtle dove elsewhere in Europe” is simply nonsense.
That such an obviously flawed statement could be made by an Environment Ministry official is very worrying and suggests a complete lack of understanding of basic population science.
According to the European Commission’s own Guide To Sustainable Hunting Under The Birds Directive:
“Derogations should not be granted for species and populations with an unfavourable conservation status, which are declining within the European Union (or in a member state considering such derogations).”
The turtle dove, Streptopelia turtur, is one such species.
Despite this, Malta has opened a spring hunting season for turtle dove every year since being taken to the European Court of Justice in 2009. The ECJ ruled that Malta had not met the conditions of the Birds Directive in its application of spring hunting derogations between 2004 and 2007.
In successive reports submitted to the European Commission, Birdlife has always submitted evidence to demonstrate that none of the “limited, strictly controlled and supervised” conditions listed in the EU Birds Directive and referred to in the Environment Ministry statement has been met by any of Malta’s derogations to allow spring hunting since that court ruling.
This year, Malta was the only European country to derogate from the Birds Directive to allow hunting of turtle dove in spring. In the face of such serious conservation concerns with regard to the species in Europe, its stance on allowing spring hunting is becoming more and more untenable.