On Tuesday, Birdlife Malta reported that hunters had illegally shot down thousands of turtledoves despite the season being open only for quail.
Some of the illegalities filmed by the bird conservation group took place at Mizieb – a wooded area that the hunting lobby has laid claim over for more than three decades.
Barely 24 hours later, it was reported that the government, rather than take action against the rampant illegalities being committed, is proposing formalising the FKNK’s claim over Mizieb and Ahrax in Mellieha. Instead of punishing bad deeds, the government is effectively gifting the hunting lobby with control over two large swathes of public land where hunting illegalities often take place.
Once again, the message being sent out by this government with regard to hunting is that this small, yet powerful lobby will always have its way.
Birdlife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said yesterday that Robert Abela is worse than Joseph Muscat on hunting. He is right. Muscat had at least closed the season in 2015 when the illegalities could no longer be ignored. Abela is doing the opposite – instead of providing the enforcement that was promised, he is thanking the hunting lobby with the gift of land.
A few weeks ago, Birdlife had warned that there are not enough police officers to enforce hunting laws, given that all police resources are being used to combat the spread of Covid-19. The police minister, Byron Camilleri, and later the Malta Police Force itself said this was not true and insisted that force would provide the required personnel, in line with the country’s legal obligations.
Yet despite these promises, it seems that enforcement is once again non-existent during the spring hunting season. Illegalities are being reported on a daily basis and hunters are shooting down much more than quail. The protected turtledove is one of the prime targets, but so are other endangered species, like birds of prey.
Volunteers from Birdlife Malta and CABS are going out in the countryside every day and are documenting these wildlife crimes, but we have heard nothing about police presence in the field, nothing about arrests, the confiscation of weapons or the revocation of licenses.
Some weeks back, the hunting federation had argued that the lack of police resources would not be a problem as hunters would “self-regulate.” Where is that self-regulation now, we ask? Once again, these were just hollow promises.
To make matters worse, Abela’s decision to place the hunting portfolio under the Gozo Ministry has created an unprecedented legal quandary. While Clint Camilleri has been made politically responsible for the sector, legally, hunting still falls under the portfolio of the Environment Minister. Birdlife yesterday argued that all hunting licenses issued this year are illegal because they were issued by Camilleri, when in fact they should have been issued by Aaron Farrugia.
This continues to confirm how short-sighted Abela’s decision was – that this was a purely political decision with no other purpose than to appease the hunting community, and which was not thought through at all. There are two ways to fix this; either change the law and make the Gozo Ministry legally responsible for hunting or transfer the responsibility back under the Environment Ministry.
More importantly, however, the government should keep to its word and provide the enforcement capabilities that were promised. Over and above that, illegalities should be punished, not rewarded, especially if the reward is public land which belongs to us all.