The FKNK hunters' federation this afternoon said it was pleased that the government had accepted the gist of its proposals for the Spring hunting season, including a proposal to allow hunting on Sundays and public holidays.

The federation said that at the last meeting of the Ornis Committee it proposed that on the Sundays and public holidays that fall within the derogated period, hunting should be permitted from two hours before sunrise up to 1pm as is the norm during other hunting open seasons.

It said that in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) verdict about hunting in Malta, the court had basically ruled that in the particular case of Malta, limited hunting for turtle dove and quail may be permitted in spring by the correct application of derogation. 

The FKNK said it based its proposals on the following criteria:

- neither the “Birds” Directive nor its guardian, the Commission, imposes hunting open season restrictions but it is up to the Member State to decide on the opening periods, days and timings;

- Malta applies very few derogations when the other EU Member States apply hundreds annually in similar fashions and circumstances;

- due to the uniqueness of the Maltese islands, game is only available to the Maltese hunters and trappers whilst on migration, there being no resident  species. Furthermore, migrating birds do not distinguish between “working” days or public holidays and undertake their journey in accordance with the climatic conditions;

- recreational activities are usually undertaken on Sundays and Public Holidays also because of the available ‘free’ time;

- most hunting is carried out on private owned land;

- the ban is anti-social, and unscientifically based and it thus discriminates against a sector of Maltese society;

- the FKNK will embark on a conservation compensatory measure project for the turtle dove and the quail.

The federation said a comparative analysis between the last spring derogation and the one announced yesterday by the government showed two fewer  hunting days than the period allowed by the framework legislation for the application of spring derogation. The season will commence on April 12 instead of on April 10;

For every single day, from Monday to Friday, during the derogation period, there was a further deduction of an hour.

"Notwithstanding, the FKNK welcomes the fact that Government has favourably considered the gist of its proposals," the federation said.

It appealed to all those hunters who intend to apply for the special licence to take careful note of each restriction and obligation.

It warned that any person caught in breach of the rules will not only be subject to criminal proceedings but will also be subjected to the Disciplinary Board of the FKNK.

GOVERNMENT STATEMENT

The government, in a statement issued half an hour after that of the FKNK also noted that this year's Spring season was two days shorter and there were fewer hunting hours.

"During this year’s season, hunting on three Sundays and during a single public holiday will be allowed until noon only; however this is more than compensated by corresponding reduction in the overall length of the season, which will start on 12th instead of 10th April, and by reduction of hunting hours during weekdays. In fact, the total number of permitted hunting hours during 2014 will be less than in 2013."

The government reacted to a Birdlife claim yesterday  that the removal of the 48 hour period during which hunters could previously apply for their spring hunting licence was tantamount to “removing one of the last remaining restrictions that limited the number of licences issued for hunting in spring”.

"For administrative and logistical reasons, as well as for the sake of fairness, good governance and cost effectiveness, the government considers this timeframe to be unreasonable and impractical, and one which causes unjustified inconvenience and additional expense both to the authorities, which have to cope with processing thousands of license applications within a two-day period, and to hunters, who were unjustly put through unreasonable, costly and unfair 48 hour gauntlet of licence applications. Any attempt at justifying this unreasonable and impractical timeframe in terms of limiting the number of licensees is not only unwarranted, in the presence of other, effective controls over intensity of hunting effort, but is also unfair, and goes contrary to basic principles of good governance," the government said.

It insisted that the spring hunting season fully respects the parameters of spring hunting derogation, the Birds Directive and the 2009 CJEU judgement on spring hunting in Malta.

"Moreover, the government shall be further improving the precision of monitoring effort by introducing additional observation stations as part of an independent monitoring study of turtle dove and quail migration during April, and shall also, for the first time, implement a similar study in the autumn. In parallel, the government is committed to further building upon and consolidating improvements that occurred over the past few months, which ranged from doubling of penalties for bird-related crime, to increasing enforcement presence in the field and intensity of inspections, implementation of stricter administrative and regulatory controls, strengthening autumn data reporting system, and improvement in rate of compliance by hunters," the government statement read.