BirdLife Malta today proposed the setting up of a Wildlife Crime Unit to fight illegal poaching.
The proposal was made by the society’s president, Joseph Mangion, at a press conference during which he compalined that illegal poaching was continuing despite the Spring season having been kept closed.
“If the government does not commit to dealing seriously with illegal hunting by establishing a wildlife crime unit, beefing up the resources of the ALE, and ensuring that repeat offenders receive the maximum fines, this very same problem will be carried on to the next migration season.” Mr Magion said.
He said that over 950 shots were recorded by BirdLife’s Spring Watch camp teams at several locations in Malta alone (excluding Gozo) over the past nine days since the beginning of the international bird monitoring camp.
He said that over the past week, Spring Watch teams received five Marsh Harriers, one Scops Owl and one Montague’s Harrier, all protected birds, with shotgun injuries.
He said there was a significant increase in the number of shot birds the conservation organization has received this year. Since the beginning of March, 17 shot protected birds were passed on to BirdLife, compared to four during the same period last year.
“Although the spring hunting season is officially closed, many poachers (illegal hunters) have been enjoying these days with impunity from the law. On several occasions where our teams spotted poachers through their telescopes and contacted the police, the ALE units could not make it on time as they were extremely stretched working with only two or three vehicles in the countryside,” Mr Mangion said.
“It was only after we alerted the Office of the Prime Minister that law enforcement in the countryside improved significantly.”
The press conference was also address by Ole Friis Larsen, sub-editor of the Danish daily newspaper “Politeken” and member of BirdLife in Denmark who said that he hoped that the Maltese government would eventually realise that protecting migrating birds would end Malta’s reputation as a black spot for illegal bird killing in the Mediterranean.
Fifty-two international birdwatchers from Denmark, UK, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Germany, and Belgium, together with nine local team leaders, are taking part in this year’s Spring Watch Camp. So far 96 different species of migratory birds including 11 raptor species have been observed, showing the importance of Malta as an important stop-over and resting spot on the central migratory flyway for wild birds, BirdLife said.