Sergei Golovkin, head of the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, stepped down after clashes with the Environment Ministry, with the final straw being pressure to pull out from an educational talk organised by Kaċċaturi San Umbertu.
According to sources, the Environment Ministry made the decision arguing that, at the time, there was no policy yet on the WBRU’s participation in such events.
Mr Golovkin’s resignation was officially announced on Monday in a terse statement by the Environment Ministry.
Mr Golovkin had previously clashed with Environment Ministry officials “on policy matters”.
When contacted, Mr Golovkin confirmed his resignation both as head of the unit and as secretary of the Ornis committee, the government’s advisory body on hunting.
He said he had also stepped down as Malta’s representative to the Council of Europe’s and the United Nations’ convention networks on enforcement against illegal killings of birds.
Mr Golovkin would not comment on what led to his decision.
However, the sources said the “short-sighted and politically-expedient instruction” to pull out from the planned talk contributed to his decision to step down.
Though the ministry’s decision was subsequently reversed, Mr Golovkin had made up his mind.
“This incident was only a symptom of the overall situation that has much more serious implications as the discord emanated from differing views on the government’s policy,” the sources said.
Kaċċaturi San Umbertu president Mark Mifsud Bonnici said that, just three hours before it was meant to start, the WBRU had pulled out of a seminar in the run-up to the start of the spring hunting season.
“We are informed that their participation was suspended in the wake of complaints from the hunters’ federation, FKNK,” Mr Mifsud Bonnici said.
“The official reason given to us was the absence of any policy regulating the WBRU’s participation in such events. Yet, no such objection had been raised when the same entity had participated in the hunting fair organised by the FKNK,” he remarked.
Mr Mifsud Bonnici noted that following the incident such a policy was introduced but it was then too late for the WBRU to take part in the educational talk.
“It baffles me why a policy was needed in the first place for this entity to deliver a talk to educate our members,” he said.
FKNK president Joe Perici Calascione flatly denied the claims involving his organisation.
“Our federation never lodged such complaints with the Environment Ministry,” he insisted.
In the meantime, Birdlife Malta yesterday urged the government to shift enforcement responsibilities for the conservation of wild birds legislation onto the Malta Environment and Resources Authority.
It said the WBRU had failed in its mission, adding it lacked competence in the field, especially in ornithology.