BirdLife must not ignore its scientific and conservation work even though the fight against illegal hunting should remain a top priority, the bird conservation group’s new executive director said.

Paul Debono, an accountant by profession, received the baton from outgoing BirdLife director Tolga Temuge, who occupied the post for four years.

Although identifying illegal bird hunting as a major problem and a top priority for the organisation, Mr Debono is expected to lower the organisation’s anti-hunting tone.

“We have to raise the standards of scientific research,” he said, emphasising the organisation’s role to conduct studies and carry out bird conservation work.

Under Mr Temuge’s leadership, BirdLife took a more militant stand against hunting and the illegal occupation of the countryside by hunters.

A Maltese-German, Mr Debono was finance and executive director to Greenpeace Mediterranean between 2001 and 2005. Before joining BirdLife, he worked with a German IT company based in Malta.

Mr Temuge said he felt it was time for him to move on. “I know Paul through Greenpeace. He is a committed environmentalist and I trust him,” Mr Temuge said, adding he had no immediate plans.

“I have always worked in the field of environmental justice and human rights and that is possibly where I will be returning to. It was the injustice of seeing large tracts of countryside occupied illegally by hunters that attracted me to BirdLife,” he said.

BirdLife president Joe Mangion thanked Mr Temuge for bringing a new dimension to the organisation.

Asked about spring hunting, Mr Mangion said BirdLife expected the government not to raise hunters’ false hopes and not to waste more time on the issue.

“After opening a limited spring hunting season last year, Malta has once again come under fire from the European Commission. Spring hunting is untenable,” he said.