The autumn bird trapping season will open after the government reached an agreement in principle with the European Commission, allowing Malta to apply a derogation, the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for animal rights, Clint Camilleri, said today.
The agreement allows for the trapping of two species of birds: the song thrush and the golden plover.
The season will open on Saturday and close on 31 December.
Earlier this year, the European Court of Justice declared that Malta was breaching the European Wild Birds Directive, and said that the practice of trapping protected finches was illegal.
European Commission sources had said that Malta would be taken to court should it open another trapping season.
The government had also been warned against allowing trapping for other species of birds, saying that it would not be able to stop the bycatch other protected species.
The Parliamentary Secretary today said the government is respecting the European Court’s decision taken back in July 2018 regarding the trapping of finches. Therefore,the discussions with the European Commission have started so that the principles of the judgment handed down and the Commission’s considerations are discussed before we apply for a derogation re the trapping season for the golden plover and the song thrush.
Addressing a press conference today, Camilleri explained that trappers will have to use nets with 45mm holes instead of 30mm.
Nets must be covered or removed before the trapper leaves the place and during any time that trapping is not permitted (meaning two hours after sunset till two hours before sunrise).
The amount of live capturing stations has been reduced by permitting the trapper to use one station instead of two stations. Every station can have a maximum of two live capturing stations.
There will be a national quota of 5,000 for the song thrush and 700 for the golden plover.
For the first time, the location of live capturing stations that are registered for this season are being published on the WBRU website.
Camilleri said that the government would also be allocating more resources to the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) and the police, as requested by the European Commission.
The PS added that the government’s legal experts were still studying the July ECJ judgment. As such, the finch trapping season would remain closed for now.
He appealed to all trappers to follow the rules to ensure that their hobby remained sustainable.
Birdlife Malta writes to EC
Reacting, Birdlife Malta said that, whilst it cannot confirm whether Malta really has reached any agreement with the EC, it has written to the Commission and is waiting for confirmation on this matter.
“It is a known fact that the EU Commission never agrees deals on derogations with countries but only asks for justification after these are implemented.
BirdLife Malta is satisfied that following the landmark European Court of Justice judgement delivered in June, there will be no finch trapping this year and that this issue has been done and dusted at this point. We do believe the European Commission might have been taken for a ride if the Maltese Government promised it can control the quotas and ensure they are not surpassed. The quotas have been set at 700 Golden Plover (Pluviera) and 5,000 Song Thrush (Malvizz) between a total of 1,500 trappers who have registered for this year's season.
This is already a concern for the EC and we expect it to remain a concern which could lead the infringement process against Malta to continue in regard to this derogation.”
Birdlife Malta added that it was pleased to note “that after years of requesting the list of registered trapping locations, this has now been made public. This data will be scrutinised to understand the implications of trapping on various habitats including also public and private land.”
FKNK statement
The hunting federation, FKNK, urged all trappers to observe the rules.
It thanked Camilleri and his team for reaching such an agreement, saying that the PS had managed to address any doubts the European Commission had.
FKNK said it had held several meetings with Camilleri over the past months, and had moved several proposals on how the derogation could be correctly applied.
It said it would continue with meetings to address other issues, such as hunting fines and hunting for wild rabbits. It would also work to ensure that Maltese hunters are not placed at a disadvantage when compared to hunters in the EU.