A massive two-year information campaign against bird trapping will be unveiled by BirdLife in the coming weeks after the European Commission yesterday approved funding for the €350,000 project.

The campaign is aimed at informing the public about the end of bird trapping in Malta, by the end of this year, and why this is important for the island's and the EU's biodiversity.

A commission official told The Times the EU will be granting BirdLife Malta a total of €175,000 or 50 per cent of the cost of the campaign.

The news was confirmed by BirdLife Malta executive director Tolga Temuge who said the organisation is satisfied that its proposal earned the commission's support.

"We want to start a dialogue with trappers and the public on the importance of stopping trapping. We feel neither the Maltese authorities nor the trappers have conducted this important information exercise," Mr Temuge said. "BirdLife has taken it upon itself to make sure all those concerned and the public are informed on why, according to the Accession Treaty, trapping has to stop and become illegal by the end of this year."

Although trapping with club nets is illegal across the EU, Malta had managed to obtain a transitional period to completely phase out trapping under strict rules.

According to this agreement, seven bird species (Carduelis cannabina, Carduelis serinus, Carduelis chloris, Carduelis carduelis, Carduelis spinus, Fringilla coelebs and Coccothraustes coccothraustes) may be captured until December 31, by traditional nets known as clap-nets, exclusively for keeping them in captivity.

The approval of this project, under the Life+ EU programme, is the second BirdLife project attracting substantial EU funds.

In 2006, the commission app-roved a €1 million conservation project to save the yelkouan shearwater birds known in Maltese as garnija.