With the autumn hunting season opening tomorrow, hunters and trappers in Gozo have been industriously preparing for the five-month long season by laying concrete, building more hunting and trapping hides and torching land at Ras il-Wardija, an area that a number of endemic species call home and that is designated as a Special Area of Conservation.

Concrete, apparently for the foundation s of new hunting and trapping hides, has also been seen being laid in the area, which is also of significant archaeological importance and of outstanding natural beauty.

Visiting the Ras il-Wardija area last Saturday, 23 August, this newspaper saw large swathes of land that have been put to the torch and flattened and a countryside littered with dozens of hides of questionable legality.

One particular area of land very close to the cliff edge had been flattened, concrete foundations had been laid and freshly quarried limestone slabs were lined up and being prepared for construction.

An environmentalist who is familiar with the area told this newspaper that the area is considered the ‘Wild West’ of the Maltese Islands, where blatant and obvious illegalities abound with virtual impunity.

In December 2011, the site was listed in the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands by the Superintendence of Cultural heritage. It is classified as a site of archaeological and architectural importance and its heritage value is considered as being “very high”.

The 2011 report states: “[Ras il-Wardija] is one of the most impressive locations in the Maltese Islands. Excavations on site started in 1964 and they showed that this grand, complex and unique monument was a religious complex assumed to have been dedicated to a celestial deity. This sanctuary dates back to the Punic and early Roman Periods.”

The entire area is believed to have been a Roman settlement.

The area has also been served with enforcement notices by Mepa and has been listed as a Special Area of Conservation and one that harbours a number of endemic species such as Helichrysum Melitense, Limonium Melitensis, phryganas and chasmophytic vegetation.

MEPA has also designated the area a ‘No Trapping Zone’.

The illicit activity in the area has been reported to Mepa and an enforcement officer will be investigating. Even though ownership of such tracts of land is very hard to determine, some trappers and hunters claim ownership of parcels of land and they labour under the erroneous presumption that since it is ‘theirs’ any activity they choose to carry out on the land is legitimate.

This is clearly not the case and various laws restrict the activities that one may carry out in particular areas, even if ownership is claimed. The area’s occupants have been known more than once to have threatened people, at times with firearms, walking in the area.

 

Season opens tomorrow

The autumn hunting season opens for business tomorrow until 31 January, with shooting allowed from two hours before sunrise to two hours after sunset between Mondays and Saturdays, and from two hours before sunrise and 1pm on Sundays and public holidays.

The hunting of birds on land between 15 September and 7 October (both dates included) will not be allowed from Mondays to Saturdays between 7pm and two hours before sunrise the following day.

The hunting of birds at sea will be allowed between 1 October and 31 January during the same times as those applicable to hunting on land, provided that between 1 October and 7 October, hunting at sea will not be allowed from Monday to Saturday between 7pm and two hours before sunrise of the following day.

Under revised laws, anyone caught shooting or trapping protected species will automatically incur a penalty of a €5,000 fine, and/or imprisonment for one year, as well as the permanent revocation or ban on obtaining a hunting or trapping licence, and confiscation of their firearms. In the case of a second or subsequent offence, the applicable penalty will rise to €10,000, confiscation, and/or imprisonment for two years. Penalties for all other irregularities, including for the non-declaration of bagged birds in the carnet de chasse, have also been increased.